Black and White
by DiscordianSamba
Summary: AU. One thing can change the entire course of history. Having chosen to keep his hybrid status a secret from everyone, at 18, Danny discovers the consequence of his decision: a very dangerous split personality. Rewrite in progress- see White and Black.
1. Hints of White

AN: Well, tada! Here's my brand-new story, one of three I have planned! This is an AU, though only slightly so. This shall be my token Evil Danny series (Dangerous Obsessions's Demigiest Danny and Take Me Away's Weapon Danny are close, but not all the way there.) Not much of his evil side in this chapter, but then again, this is just the introduction. Black Danny will be rather vicious. Anyways, this story is the offspring of a rather extensive Danny Phantom RP I have over IM with my friend Morgan. Man, that RP is nuts... (Shakes head) In any case, I hope you enjoy! Please read and review! I like to know what'cha think, even if I don't always respond to all my reviews.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Butch Hartman. Tucker, Danny, Sam, and Phantom's outfits belong to me though, so back off! Oh, and the fic. That too. Heheh.

Black and White

Chapter One: Hints of White

Amity Park. It was a wet and rainy winter day, a Thursday, and the teenagers who attended Casper High were all rushing into the school, hoping to get in before they all got drenched. Among those students were Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley.

Sam Manson was the daughter of the rich Manson family, but from just looking at her, one wouldn't have guessed it. The eighteen-year old was the exact opposite of her parents, in both physical and mental terms. She had black hair, which she kept down, with just a bit of it in a ponytail, and violet eyes. She wore a violet vest, with a long-sleeved black shirt and a pair of black jeans. She wore a pair of violet-soled black platform boots, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. Finishing her look was a trace of violet lipstick and some dark purple nail polish.

Tucker Foley was the resident technological genius of Casper High, even though he didn't act much like it. The African-American teen could hack into the most advanced security systems, if he ever got the urge too. He had black hair that was mostly hidden by a red beret, and his green eyes were hidden by glasses. He was wearing a jade green jacket, with the hood currently up, along with a long-sleeved yellow shirt, and baggy jade green cargo pants. He also wore a pair of dark brown combat boots.

Sam stopped in front of the doors to Casper High, her eyes scanning the crowd of incoming students. She frowned, and turned to Tucker, who had stopped to see what she was waiting for. "Have you seen Danny?" She asked.

"No, I haven't. Maybe he's already inside?" Tucker suggested.

Sam sighed. There used to be a time when the two of them had either walked or ridden to school together, but those times were starting to change. It wasn't that she thought Danny no longer wanted to be friends with them, it was just that he seemed somehow more busy and preoccupied than before. Not to mention paranoid.

"Come on Sam." Tucker said, after a minute. "We have to get inside. You don't want to catch a cold, do you?"

Sam turned back to look at him, then turned back to the students entering Casper High one last time, before she frowned, turning around and following Tucker into the school. The techno genius let down his hood, taking off his glasses and giving them a quick wipe to get some of the rain off of the lenses. He put them back on and turned to look at Sam, who was looking around in the hallways.

"You seem more worried about him than normal today." Tucker said. He knew that Sam had feelings for Danny, even though their old friend might not have been aware of it. There were times when she had tried to confess her love, but Danny either didn't seem to hear her, or had to run off to do something.

Sometimes Tucker tried to ask Danny what was going on, but his friend merely laughed nervously and denied that anything was wrong at all. He had been doing it for about four years now, and Tucker had just slowly started to accept it as a fact of life. That didn't mean he liked it though, and he always did still try and find out what was up. He and Sam had long given up on the theory that Danny would come clean with them.

Sam sighed again, turning to look at him. "I saw him out late last night. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk. I came across him lying in this ally, bleeding from his right side. I tried to go over and help him, but he just..." She sighed once more. "...he just laughed and said that nothing was wrong, even though he was bleeding. He just got up and left after that."

Tucker frowned. "That _does _sound like trouble. What do you think happened?"

"I don't know... Maybe he got into a fight, or something?" Sam asked, half to herself, and half to Tucker.

"Nah. Danny's not that kind of guy. I'm mean, sure, he's been acting pretty paranoid and stuff lately, and he's always running off, but he's not stupid either." Tucker said, shrugging. "I'm sure he's got a perfectly good explanation for it..."

"I hope so..." Sam whispered, sighing. The two walked into their first period, both glancing around. Danny was nowhere in sight. Sam frowned again, and took her seat, looking across from it at Tucker. The African American teenager shrugged at her.

"He's running late again, I guess." Tucker said. "He could be taking the day off too..."

Almost as soon as he said that, Danny walked into the room. He had grown his jet black hair out a bit in the past, years, it now hung down to his shoulders. His light blue eyes scanned the room, meeting with Sam and Tucker's. He wore a long-sleeved white shirt, with a pair of dark blue jeans and black sneakers. He was looking drenched, water dripping off of his hair.

He walked over to take his seat, in between Sam and Tucker. "Hi Sam. Hi Tucker." He greeted them.

"Uh... Danny, are you allright?" Sam asked, worriedly.

Danny blinked at her. "Well, I'm a little wet, but I should be fine. Why?"

"No, not about that!" Sam said, sighing. "Last night, Danny. What happened? What were you doing there, and how did you get hurt so badly?" She asked. She was a bit confused at the fact that Danny didn't seem wounded this morning.

Danny blinked at her again, seemingly clueless. "I'm not sure what you're talking about, Sam. You sure you weren't dreaming, or something?" He asked, arching an eyebrow. "I'm perfectly fine."

Sam frowned. Maybe she _had _been dreaming. But it all seemed so real! She glance over to Tucker, who shrugged. "Yeah... sorry Danny. It was probably just a dream."

Danny smiled at her. "No problem." He said, before turning towards the board, as the bell had rang, and their teacher had started class.

Sam sighed, turning away from Danny and staring at the board. Math class, Danny's worst subject and one of Tucker's best. She pulled out her notebook and flipped it to a clean sheet of paper, starting to take notes. Halfway into her note-taking, she paused, gazing over at Danny, blinking when she found that he was fast asleep.

"Heh." She said, smiling half-to herself. Danny tended to fall asleep in class a lot these days. He always seemed so tired, like there was something that was preventing him from getting any sleep. While she did worry about what that might be, she couldn't deny the fact that she found a sleeping Danny very cute. He just looked so peaceful, and it was easy for her to forget that she was worried about him for any reason at all.

"He asleep again?" Tucker whispered, looking at Danny now too. Sam rolled her eyes at the fact that Tucker had to ask. "I'll take that as a yes." Tucker said. "Think he'll get detention again?"

"Tucker, have you ever seen this teacher give detention to _anyone_?" Sam asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, there was that one time he supposedly gave it in 1985. But I see your point. It's a good thing he picked this class to take a nap in. If it was Lancer's he'd be staying after school for sure." Tucker frowned. "Not that he always shows up for that either, which only makes Mr. Lancer madder. Man, you'd think someone kept killing his cat or something."

Sam shook her head slightly, amused. Mr. Lancer was their literature teacher, as well as the Casper High's vice principal. He had actually been their literature teacher when they were freshmen too. He had apparently been promoted to teaching seniors by the time they had gotten to that level. He had a reputation for being very strict, though at times he was a bit more lax on the popular students or the football players than the others.

"We better just remember to wake him up when class is over." Sam whispered back to Tucker, who nodded. There had been a few times in the past where Danny had slept through the bell, and the two had accidentally left him behind in the class. It was rather embarrassing when they had to go back for him and wake him up, especially since Danny was prone to shouting completely random things when he was woken up.

"Hey Sam..." Tucker whispered, looking down at their sleeping friend. "...Have you ever thought about following him?"

Sam blinked, staring at Tucker. "Following him? Tucker, that would completely violate his privacy! Not to mention it would be creepy as hell _and _illegal."

"Aww, come on Sam!" Tucker whined. "It's probably for his own good anyways. I mean, what if you weren't just dreaming about seeing him injured? What if he's actually gotten himself mixed up in something he shouldn't? Some friends we'd be then if we didn't try and help him out from whatever sticky situation that he's gotten himself worked up in."

"Even so Tucker, he could have just been on a walk himself and gotten mugged." Sam whispered back. After the initial onset of worry that Danny had gotten mixed up in some nasty business, she had decided that it was ridiculous. Tucker was right, Danny wasn't like that. Chances were he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But then what about the paranoia and the disappearing acts?

"Muggers?" Tucker asked, arching an eyebrow. "Come on Sam. This is _Amity Park_, not New York City. We don't _have _muggers. We barely even have people stealing candy from _babies!_" He exclaimed, slightly louder than he intended too. A few people in the class stopped taking their notes to peer back at the three. Sam and Tucker stayed silent until the all turned back around. The teacher hadn't seemed to notice the disruption.

Sam sighed deeply, hanging her head. "I know, _I know_. But I just don't _want _it to be that Danny's gotten into something he shouldn't."

"I know what you mean." Tucker said, sighing. He stayed silent then, and another glance over towards him let Sam know that he had gone back to taking notes. She looked back down at Danny again, praying that it wasn't that he had gotten into something that he shouldn't have. After that, she turned back to her notes.

The screeching of a seat being pulled back came a few minutes later. Sam blinked and looked up from her notes, towards Danny. The teenager had woken up from his sleep, his light blue eyes wide and panicking. He was standing up, searching frantically around the room.

"Danny?" Sam whispered worriedly. Tucker, as well as the rest of the class was looking at him now as well. "What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Danny blinked, looking back down at Sam. He gave her an awkward smile. "Oh... nothing. I just... have to go. Sorry Mr. Kramer!" He apologized before leaving the classroom, without bothering to give an explanation for why he was leaving.

The teacher frowned and sighed, he had gotten used to this by now. The rest of the class had as well. To them, it was just typical, strange Danny Fenton. In their eyes, it was just his parent's eccentricity being genetic.

Sam gritted her teeth slightly, gazing towards the door that Danny had just left from, debating whether or not she should follow him. It wouldn't have been the first time that she had cut a class, she had done so a few times before when there was an event during school hours that she desperately wanted to go too. She sighed, deciding that it would be for the best.

She got up from her seat and headed towards the teacher. "I'm sorry too Mr. Kramer! I have to go as well!" She apologized, before dashing out the door. She managed to catch a glimpse of Danny as he turned the corner and hurried after him, as quietly and quickly as she could in a pair of platform boots. It really wasn't that hard to run in them when you had gotten used to walking in them, though.

She turned the corner, expecting to see Danny still in her sights. She froze, baffled, finding that had instead disappeared completely. Sam looked around the hallway, in confusion. There was no way that Danny could have gotten out of her visual range _that _fast. It had barely been five seconds since he had turned the corner!

Sam let out a long, hanging her head. _Well, whatever happened, he got away._ She thought. _I guess I'll just have to try-huh?_ Her thoughts were cut off by what sounded like the screeching of a rather large bird, coming from behind her. She whipped around, her violet eyes widening in shock as she came face to talons with a _huge _bird. A huge, _glowing _bird.

She welded her eyes shut, bracing for the impact, flinging her arms up to try and protect herself, the word ghost ringing through her mind. That was another thing that had been going on in Amity Park recently-random ghost attacks. It might sound absurd, but Amity Park was number one on the most haunted places in the world list. These ghosts would appear anywhere, at anytime.

"Leave her alone!"

The shout shattered Sam from her thoughts, and her eyes snapped open, her arms falling to her sides. Floating in front of her holding the ghost bird by the neck was one of Amity Park's most famous ghosts.

No one _really _knew his name. There were many names for him. Silly-sounding ones like Invisio-Bill, or much better ones like Phantom. More still simply called him 'The Ghost Boy' or 'The Ghost Kid'. Whatever his name was, everyone in Amity Park could identify him instantly by sight.

One could almost mistake him for an ordinary teenager-_almost._ His messy white hair, which hung down slightly to his shoulders, could have been passed off as being bleached. There was, however, no other explanation for his brightly glowing green eyes, or the ghostly aura that surrounded him. The fact that he was clearly stronger than any normal teenager was also a dead giveaway.

He wore mostly white, with hints of black here and there. He wore a low-cut, long-sleeved, white shirt which would have exposed his shoulder, had he not been wearing a tight black t-shirt underneath it. He wore white pants, with stray black belts hanging down from them, and a pair of black fingerless gloves and black combat boots.

"Phantom!" Sam shouted out in surprise, calling him by her preferred moniker. This was honestly the first time she had seen him up close. Now that she got a good look at him though, she found something she hadn't really noticed before. When all you got to see of him were brief glimpses from the news and grainy photographs, one really didn't get a good impression of what he _really _looked like.

He reminded her of Danny.

Speaking of Danny, where _had _he gone anyway?

"Be with you in a second!" The ghost boy shouted back, releasing the ghost bird from his hold, whipping out a thermos from a holster he had attached to the back of his main belt, sucking the ghost into it in a flash of blue light. He holstered it back, and turned around, looking at the gawking gothic girl.

Sam's mouth hung upon, unable to think of what she wanted to say. Here he was. The famous or infamous Phantom. What view you got of him all depended on who you talked to. There were those who called him a hero, a good ghost trying to keep all the other ghosts from destroying Amity Park.

Others called him a monster, a vile creature who lived for battling and would take any excuse to get in a good fight. Most of these people were property holders, which wasn't surprising considering that Phantom destroyed a lot of property during his fights. Ghost always seemed to show up in the most public of places, but somehow that wasn't surprising either.

There were people in-between and this is where Sam fell. Not necessarily evil, but maybe not really good either. These were the people who believed that he viewed Amity Park as his territory, and the reason he fought off other ghosts was because he didn't want to share it with another ghost. While they didn't approve of the property damage that his battles caused, they also pointed out that he had never harmed a human purposefully. There were a few incidents in the past where humans had gotten hurt, but those were either due to human error, or the opposing ghost had done it.

Sam closed her mouth, regaining her cool. "Um, thank you." She said, after taking a deep breath to help herself focus.

The ghost boy smiled at her, which struck her as both strangely attractive and familiar. "No problem." He said, shaking his head. "You better get back to class."

Sam found herself nodding and leaving the scene, heading back into Mr. Kramer's classroom. The class paused, looking at her as she entered. Sam could only imagine how she must have looked to them. She sat down in her seat, letting out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding.

"Well?" Tucker whispered, leaning over. "What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost."

"I did. Two, in fact." Sam said.

"There was a ghost battle!" Tucker asked, surprised. Sam nodded. "Well, what about Danny? Was he there too?"

"I don't know, I lost him." Sam sighed, plopping her head down on her desk. No sooner than she had, did Danny return to class, all of the former panic in his eyes gone. He took his seat like nothing had happened, and he had never left.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed, a bit surprised. "Where did you go?"

Danny blinked at her, as if it was obvious. "The bathroom."

"Oh. Right. Bathroom." Sam laughed nervously. "Of course." She cleared her throat and turned away from him, trying to get back into her notes. She heard Danny yawn, and assumed that he had gone back to sleep on his desk.

Though she tried to focus, Sam found that her mind kept on drifting to other subjects-like Danny. She couldn't help but feel that Danny somehow had something to do with Phantom. And now that she thought about it, this wouldn't have been the first time that Danny had disappeared, with Phantom appearing after a short while.

_Could they possibly be the same person? No! Come on Sam, that's absurd! There's no way that could be true! _Sam thought, shaking her head. _That would mean that Danny would have to be a ghost, and he's clearly not! _She frowned then.

_Still, it might explain why he's always running off, and seeming so paranoid at times. And maybe it would explain why Phantom has a Fenton Thermos._ She thought, recalling the thermos Phantom had sucked the bird ghost up into earlier. He had one of them with him at all times, which she thought was strange since it was an invention of the Fentons-Danny's parents, and two of the people trying to desperately hunt down and capture Phantom.

_Could it be possible?_

_

* * *

_

Sam stood outside of Danny's door, trying to gather up her courage, taking in a deep breath. School had ended an hour ago, and the three friends had gone their separate ways. Sam hadn't shared her suspicions with Tucker yet. They just sounded so ridiculous, that she was too embarrassed to.

She knew that she had to talk to Danny. After thinking about it for awhile in her room, she had gotten up and left, heading towards Danny's house. There would be no more beating around the bush. She was just going to come up and demand to know what was going on. They were best friends, Danny shouldn't be keeping secrets from them!

She reached her hand out, taking hold of the doorknob. After taking and letting out another deep breath, she flung it open. "Danny, we need to..." She began, then closed her mouth, staring stock-still at the sight in front of her.

There was Danny, sitting on his bed, looking up at her stunned. His shirt was off, and he was in the process of unwrapping bandages that were caked on his right side with dried blood. Underneath them was a rather nasty wound, the same one that Sam had thought she had seen last night.

And mixed in with the old blood were faint traces of a glowing green liquid.

Ectoplasm.


	2. His Secret

AN: Chapter Two! Sorry that there was such a lapse in updates, but that happens sometimes. I'm human too, you know, and I do get writer's block every now and then. Anyways, the revelation chapter, at least of Danny's half-ghost secret. Not much happens in this chapter besides that, although we do get some brief glimpses of Black Danny. We'll see him more in Chapter Three though.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Butch Hartman.

Black and White

Chapter Two: His Secret

"Sam!" Danny exclaimed, sounding surprised, staring wide-eyed at the gothic teenager that had just entered his room without warning. He silently cursed himself, he should have made sure that the door was closed before he changed the bandages on his wound. The very same one that he had just told Sam earlier that he didn't have.

"Danny..." Sam said slowly, staring at him, for a moment unable to think of what to say. So she _hadn't _been dreaming, and Danny really _had _been somehow wounded. And furthermore, he had been _lying _to her about it! She couldn't believe it. She was so stunned by the fact that he would lie to her about something that was obviously important that she didn't even notice the unique fact that parts of her friend's blood was actually green ectoplasm.

Danny gulped slowly, dropping his hands down from the bandages. He was going to be in for it now. But he couldn't risk telling Sam why he was wounded, and he knew she was going to ask. He had to find some way out of this conversation.

"You _lied _to me." Sam said accusingly, her violet eyes a mixture of disappointment and disbelief. "You lied to me, Danny. _Why?_" She asked. "What possible reason could you have to lie to me, one of your best friends?"

Danny let a long sigh, a guilty look on his face. Sam felt a pang of guilt herself upon seeing it, feeling that maybe she had gone a bit too far. Danny must have felt that he had good reasons for lying to her.

"It's... a long story Sam." Danny said, not meeting her eyes. "A really long story."

"Does it have anything to do with Phantom?" Sam asked. Danny looked up, wide-eyed and stunned, confirming Sam's suspicions that the two were somehow connected. "It _does_, doesn't it?"

"How did you-" He began, then shook his head, sighing. "Nevermind. I should have known it would be only a matter of time before you figured things out." Danny looked back up at Sam. "Yes. It does."

"Then tell me Danny. You shouldn't have to keep something as important as this to yourself." Sam smiled at him, crossing the space between them and taking a seat on his bed. "I promise you I won't tell _anyone_."

Danny let out a long sigh, trying to think of where to begin. "You remember that one time when I was fourteen, and I got into that accident in my parent's lab?" He asked, looking at her.

Sam nodded. She did remember that accident. Danny had been out of school for about a week and a half afterwards. Now that she thought about it, that _was _right around the time when all his strange behavior started. She cursed herself inwardly, she should have made that connection a long time ago.

"Well, it changed me." Danny continued, turning away from her. He glanced down towards the bloodied bandages lying on his bed, and the traces of ectoplasm mixed in with it. He turned back towards Sam, his face a mixture of both pain and embarrassment, fear and hope. "I'm half-ghost, Sam. _I'm _Phantom."

Sam stayed silent for a long time. She was honestly expecting something like this, but now that it had finally come, she had no idea about how to react to it. Danny was Phantom. Phantom was Danny. They were the same person all along. She found her mind drifting back to the various incidents that had made Phantom's existence public knowledge-the ghost invasion, being declared as public enemy number one by the mayor, the Phariah Dark incident. She thought of how she had arrived at her views of the ghost boy, and the views of those who surrounded her. She thought of these things for awhile before she finally spoke again, smiling slightly at her old friend.

"I understand." She said. "You were afraid to tell me because you were afraid of what I'd think, weren't you?" She asked.

Danny nodded. That was exactly it.

Sam's smile only brightened. "Well, _don't _be. I'm proud that I have such a brave friend, Danny. Not many people could do what you're doing all alone." Then Sam did something that surprised Danny even more than her acceptance. She reached out and wrapped her arms around him, taking care to avoid touching his wounded lower right side. "And thanks for saving me earlier." She said, whispering it into his ear.

Danny blushed slightly at this. He couldn't deny the fact that he had feelings for his long-time best friend, but he had never had the time or the opportunity lately to try and peruse a relationship.

Sam pulled back then, smiling. "I _am _a bit mad at you for lying to me for so long though." She admitted.

"Sorry..." Danny whispered, apologizing again.

"Eh, that's okay. I'll get over it." Sam smiled. "Here, let me help you with those bandages." She offered, getting up and moving over to Danny's wounded side. She tossed the old bandages in the garbage and pulled out the new ones, taking a slight pause to look at her friend's wound. It looked like it had been fairly deep, but it had already healed up and the bleeding had stopped. She looked up at Danny.

"You know, you're not bleeding anymore. Do you really need new bandages?" She asked, her eyebrows knitting together in thought.

"Well, just in case I open it back up again." Danny said, in a way that gave Sam the idea that it wouldn't be the first time a wound had re-opened on him. Danny caught where her thoughts were going and instantly turned reassuring. "Oh, don't worry! I'm a fast healer, so there's not too much to worry about."

Sam frowned. She didn't like the idea of Danny walking around with wounds, but he probably knew best. She would keep a closer eye on him though. She went to wrap the bandages around his waist, grateful for the first aid course she had gone through during the summer.

"How did you hurt yourself so badly anyways, Danny?" She asked, curious. She knew it was probably from fighting ghosts, but she wanted to know which one and exactly what had happened.

A strange look washed over her friend's face then, and Sam instantly regretted asking. "Y-You don't have to tell me if you don't want to though Danny. I was just curious. You can't blame me for worrying about you, can you?" She asked. "I mean, what kind of best friend would I be if I didn't worry?"

Danny sighed and shook his head, the strange look in his eyes passing, but not before Sam got to see what the expression was. It was worry, with even a bit of shame. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was more going on here than what met the eye, but seeing as she had already pushed Danny on revealing one of his secrets, she wouldn't press him again to reveal another one. At least not for today.

"No, I can't. Sorry Sam." Danny apologized.

Sam smiled at him, finishing tying the bandages around his waist. "There we go! Good as new." She got up and dusted off her hands, taking in the boy in front of her. She managed to keep herself from blushing now that everything that was distracting her from noticing the fact that he was shirtless was gone. While he was still skinny, there was no doubt that he had gained some muscle tone in the past few years.

Danny, as if almost catching Sam's embarrassment, turned a light shade of red, grabbing at his shirt and tugging it over his head. Once he had pulled his head through, he looked up at Sam, curious. "Say, uh, Sam, you want to stay for dinner?"

Sam frowned. "I don't know, is your dad cooking?" She asked, remembering the last time that she had come over when Jack was cooking. He had tried to use one of his inventions to make the cooking go faster, and they wound up with a possessed dinner.

"Nah, it's my mom." Danny said, remembering the exact Sam incident that Sam was. It wasn't the first time his dad had brought the food to life, and it wasn't the last time either. There were times when Danny just wanted to destroy all of Jack's food-based inventions, just so they wouldn't have to deal with ghost burgers wreaking the house.

"Sure, I'll stay!" Sam smiled. If there was one person she knew who could cook, it was Danny's mom. Her specialty was cookies, but she was an excellent cook when it came to other things as well. "We better let your mom know so she can whip up a vegetarian dish for me." She suggested.

"Yeah. Come on, she's down in the lab." Danny grinned, getting up from his bed and taking Sam's hand. Behind him, Sam turned a light shade of red, and she let herself be lead down the stairs to the basement, which was where Danny's parent's lab was. Once there, Danny let go of her hand and went over to talk to his mother, leaving Sam to look around the lab.

The first thing that Sam's eyes fell on was the Ghost Portal. Curious, she walked over to it and stood in front of it, staring into the swirling green portal. _So this is what made Danny half-ghost._ She had of course seen it before, but now she was looking at it in a whole new light. She still wasn't quite sure if she was fascinated or disturbed by the fact that something like this could turn someone into a half-ghost.

"Sam?" Danny came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. Sam yelped, nearly jumping out of her skin. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn't heard Danny come by her. She turned around, glaring at Danny slightly.

"Danny! Don't do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" She hissed, still feeling her heart beating a mile per minute.

"Sorry, sorry." He apologized, grinning sheepishly. "My mom says she'll make you a salad. Is that good?" He asked. Sam nodded. Danny turned back towards his mother. "She said yes!" He shouted over to her, waiting for his aqua jumpsuit-clad mother to nod before he turned back to Sam. "Mom said okay." He relayed to her.

"Great!" Sam smiled. "So, what should we do until dinner?"

Danny frowned, thinking. "Well, if I don't get interrupted by another ghost attack, I have this new video game that you might like..." He began.

"What kind of game?" Sam asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Fighting game." Danny answered.

"Sounds good to me!" The Goth girl smiled. "Just don't get all upset when I beat you multiple times." She teased, a playful look on her face.

"Hey, that's Tucker, not me!" Danny protested. Sam simply continued to smile at him teasingly, before she turned around and headed upstairs. Danny shook his head and followed behind her back upstairs to his room.

_Video games? How juvenile can you get. Isn't there something else you want to do?_

Danny froze in his tracks, his eyes going wide. Sam frowned, turning around to look at him, her eyebrows knitting together. "Danny? Is something wrong?" She looked around the hallway. "There's not another ghost, is there?" She asked.

She had seen this look many times before, and now that she knew what it was, she couldn't help but notice something _different _about this one. It seemed to be less paranoid and more terrified. "Danny?" She asked again, dropping her voice to almost a whisper. "Are you allright?"

"Huh?" The ghost hybrid seemed to snap back into reality. "Oh... yeah, I'm fine. I just thought I sensed a ghost... but I was wrong! No ghost here." He looked around the hallway, before crossing his arms in front of him. "No ghost at all." He declared.

Sam frowned. Something about his explanation didn't seem right. But why would he lie to her? I mean, she already knew one of his darkest secrets, and she had already proved herself loyal and trustworthy. So why was he lying to her again? It didn't make any sense. There couldn't be anything worse, could there?

She shook her head, deciding to put the matter aside for the moment. But if she saw Danny act like that again, she wouldn't take a lie for an answer. "Well, I'm glad it isn't another ghost attack. Judging from how tired you are in school, I'd say you definitely need a break from those."

A thought struck her then, and she turned back to Danny. "Hey, Danny, what if you let me help you?" She asked. "I could take some of your parent's ghost equipment and-"

"No." Danny said firmly, cutting her off. "It's too dangerous, Sam. If you get hurt, then I'm the one whose going to be held responsible for it. And I've got a bad enough reputation as it is." He explained, staring her straight in the eye. "Plus, I kinda don't want to see you hurt either..." He added, quieter, looking down a bit.

Sam was both offended by the fact that Danny didn't seem to think that she could handle herself and flustered by the fact that he didn't want to see her hurt. "Danny, don't worry." She said, after a short silence. "You and I both know that I can take care of myself. And you know that you _need _the help."

"I don't need any help! I'm doing perfectly fine on my own!" Danny protested, frowning at her.

Sam let out a long sigh. "Danny, it's obvious to me that you're not. You're always falling asleep in class, you've been getting injured_ a lot_, and you're falling _way _behind in school." She listed off the reasons, counting them off on her fingers as she did. "You're going to self-destruct if you keep yourself going at this pace, and that's something I don't want to see happening."

_Going to?_

Sam frowned again. There was that strange expression on his face again. For a brief second, it almost seemed as if something in Danny's eyes had changed, before the paranoid expression came over him. It was quick, but she could have sworn she had seen a rather malicious look in his eyes.

"Danny? Are you okay?" She asked again, frowning.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I am. I was just thinking." Danny apologized. "Sorry."

It was clear to Sam once more that he was lying. And for all that she had planned to confront him about it, something in that look his eyes had moments before had discouraged her slightly. Maybe it would be better if she just observed him closely from now on.

Danny let out a sigh. "Well, I guess you're right Sam. The way I'm going really isn't good for me." He smiled at her, showing that he was truly grateful. "I guess letting you help out from time to time wouldn't hurt."

Sam smiled at him. "Thanks Danny. You won't regret it, I promise." Her grin grew wider then, turning slightly playful. "So, how about I show you how well I can take care of myself by kicking your ass in your new video game."

Danny arched an eyebrow. "I'd like to see you try."

"You'll see me more than just _try_, you'll see me _do _it!" Sam said, before heading into Danny's room and plopping down in front of his game counsle.

Danny shook his head and took a seat next to her, picking up his controller, starting up the game. He paused, his hand hovering over the start button, and he turned to Sam. "Hey Sam?"

"Hm?" The Goth girl looked up, a questioning expression on her face. "What is it?"

"Just... thanks. Thanks for everything. I couldn't have asked for a better friend." He said, smiling.

Sam smiled back. "That's what friends are for right? It's no big deal, Danny. I'm sure you'd do the same thing for me if I was in your situation." He smiled widened further. "Now, come on, are we just going to exchange cheesy lines all day, or are we going to play some video games?"

Danny laughed, pressing down on the start button. Both teenagers put their troubles away for the moment, taking some time to just relax, and be normal teenagers.

Neither of them could have guessed that they wouldn't have much time to do that in the coming days.


	3. Hints of Black

AN: Yay, Chapter Three! Sorry about the update gap, but I was distracted by my shiny new computer, and my shiny new DSL. I can play the Sims 2 now! And yes, the first thing I did was make Danny Phantom Sims. But, anyways, I got a question on Chapter One in an review, and forgot to answer it last chapter, because I'm a ditz like that. The question was, how is Sam 18 and in high school? Well, that's quite simple. When you're 18, you're finishing up your senior year in high school. So that's why.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Butch Hartman. And despite the fact that the government says otherwise, I am not making a profit off of this. The government is lying to you! Your whole life is a lie!

* * *

Black and White

Chapter Three: Hints of Black

"Bye Danny! I'll see you at school tomorrow!"

Eighteen-year old Sam Manson waved goodbye to her long time friend, Danny Fenton. They had spent the entire afternoon together, and now that they had finished dinner, Sam decided that it was time for her to head on home. If she stayed any longer without her parents knowing where she was, they might call the police. They had done it a couple times before already. Not that they'd be much happier to learn that she had been hanging out with Danny. For some reason, her parents didn't seem to like him very much.

Danny smiled slightly, waving goodbye to Sam as well. He was silently grateful that the remainder of the day had managed to pass by ghost-free. There had been quite a few ghost attacks piling up on him lately, and he was relieved that he finally had a chance to take a break and enjoy himself for once.

_You're pathetic._

"Shut up." Danny muttered, glaring cross-eyed at himself. "What do you know anyways?"

_More than you, obviously. I don't get you. You were in our room **alone **with the woman we want more than anything, and you just played **video games **with her?_

"_Shut up!_" Danny hissed, annoyed, one of his eyes twitching. His parents, who were sitting in the living room blinked, looking up at him. Danny laughed nervously, before heading out of the living room and back upstairs to his room. He _really _had to start watching where he was when he started to talk to his other half.

_Hn. Somebodys a little testy._

"Who _wouldn't _be with you in their head?" Danny shot back, his eyes narrowing.

_You know, you really shouldn't insult yourself like that. People might think you're emotionally masochistic._

"You're _not _me." He stated firmly, even though he had long since accepted the fact that this voice was part of him. That didn't mean he had to like it, or him, though. In fact, he wished there was some way he could get rid of it, but so far, nothing had worked.

_You just **wish **that were true, don't you? Get your pansy ass over it. I **am **you. I'm just your better half._

"I think you have that backwards." Danny muttered, glaring at himself. The voice in his head merely laughed, amused, but it remained silent. Danny sighed and flopped back on his bed, placing a hand over his face, closing his eyes.

"Why can't anything be simple anymore?" He said, letting out another sigh. As if having to deal with high school, and keeping the fact that he was half-ghost secret from everyone wasn't enough, recently he had this annoying voice in his head to deal with too.

At first, he had thought that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, a result from all the stress he was going through. But as the voice continued to become more prominent and chime in more frequently, he began to think that there might be something else going on.

"Sam was right..." He mumbled, taking his hand off his face and staring up at the ceiling. "I _have _cracked..."

_**Now **he realizes it. Took you long enough._

"Shut up already!" He shouted, a lot louder than he intended. He twitched in annoyance as he heard the mocking laughter in his head. He knew what his other self was trying to accomplish, and sure enough it wasn't long before he heard his mother's footsteps coming up the stairs, and a knock on the door.

"Danny? Are you okay in there?" Maddie Fenton asked, frowning. If it had been a couple of months earlier, she might have asked who it was he was talking to. When she had before, she could hear him stammer to come up with an answer, claiming that he was on the phone with someone, and just got into an argument. The first few times, Maddie had excepted that explanation, but as it started to happen more often she knew that something else was going on.

"I'm fine mom!" Danny shouted. He had long stopped trying to explain himself to her. He already knew that his mother didn't believe him when he claimed he was arguing with someone on the phone. He might have said it was the TV, except for the fact that there _was _no TV in his room. Sometimes he wondered if his mother thought he was crazy. _After all, sane people don't hear voices in their heads, or have split personalities._

_Or pass up on a chance to makeout with a girl._

Maddie let out a long sigh, opening up her son's door. She had let this go on long enough without stepping in, but today she had decided that something needed to be done about it. The fact that Danny seemed to have started talking to himself disturbed her enough, but in combination with the other things that she had noticed about her son in the past four years, it all but screamed to her that something was wrong, and she needed to do something about it.

But first she had to find out what was going on.

She had complied a mental list of Danny's strange behaviors. Ever since he had started high school, his grades had dropped, sometimes dipping towards the failing point. There were times when he left early from class, or cut it entirely. She could tell that he seemed both physically and emotionally exhausted. He also seemed to be getting injured more, his wounds varying from a few scrapes and bruises to broken limbs.

If Maddie were in any other profession, she might not have noticed some of the even stranger things about her son. The fact that much of their ghost-hunting equipment malfunctioned around him, as well as the fact that no matter how bad his wounds got, he _refused _to go to the hospital. He wouldn't even let her bring him in for his check-ups anymore. Of course, now that was eighteen, that really didn't matter much anymore, but the fact that he had resisted getting them in the past told her that something suspicious had to be going on.

Not to mention the fact that Danny seemed to heal very quickly. She could recall a time about a year and a half ago when she had come across Danny in the park, trying to splint a broken leg. Maddie had to do the X-Rays herself to tell it was broken, since once again, Danny refused to go to the hospital. Within a matter of days, his leg had completely healed. And that wasn't an isolated incident.

Danny pulled himself up from his lying position on his bed, looking at his mother. "I told you that I'm _fine_." He said, sharply. A look of guilt washed across his face then, and Maddie knew that she must have been displaying some hurt on her face from the snappy tone that he had used.

The ghost huntresses let out another long sigh. "Danny, you're _not _fine. I know something is wrong with you and I really wish you would tell me about it." She said, approaching his bed and sitting down next to him.

"Mom, I'm serious. I'm doing allright." Danny said, trying to avoid meeting his mother's eyes. "There's _nothing _wrong with me."

_Well, I don't know. I'd say there was **plenty **wrong with you._

Danny avoided the urge to punch himself in the head to make him shut up. He needed to appear as sane as he possibly could to his mother right now. Sane and normal, and not at all related to ghosts in any other way than the fact that his parents were professional ghost hunters.

"Danny, you're talking to yourself." His mother said bluntly, sighing deeply, and trying to get her son to look at her in the eyes. The fact that he refused to make eye contact with her worried her even more. "Your grades have been getting worse and worse. You're skipping class and coming home late, not to mention that you seem to be getting injured a lot. I don't think I can believe that nothing is wrong anymore."

Danny let out a deep sigh. "I just..." He begin, trying to find some way to explain his behavior. It was at times like these when he just wished that he could tell his mother his secret, that he could tell her he was half-ghost. He wished that he could tell her that _he _was the ghost that was considered by some to be Public Enemy Number One, that he was the same ghost that she and his father had hunted so passionately all these years.

But his fear that she might reject him, and the further fear that she might turn against him, kept that confession at bay. He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "It's just that I've just got some stuff that I need to work out right now on my own, okay?" He said, looking up at his mother. "I know you're worried, mom, but I promise you that I'm _fine_. I'm not doing drugs, or anything like that."

Maddie let out a long sigh, staying silent for a moment, tapping her fingers slightly against her legs where they lay. She could tell that he was lying to her, based off of the look in his eyes. She could see that he really wanted some help, but at the same time, appeared to be afraid of telling her what was wrong. After a minute, she smiled slightly at Danny. "Allright Danny. If you think you can handle whatever's going on on your own, then that's fine. But just remember that I'm here _whenever _you need me. Your father is too, and Jazz is only a phone call away."

Her daughter, Jasmine, had gone off to college in another state the previous year, trying to obtain a degree in psychology. She only came back home during holidays and vacations. She wished that she were here right now, but her next break wasn't for several weeks to come. If she was, then maybe she could get to the bottom of what was going on with Danny. _Because I sure don't seem to be getting anywhere fast._

She had a few theories, of course, but she didn't like to think about those theories too much.

Danny nodded, resisting the urge to sigh in relief. Maddie smiled at him, before she got up from his bed, planting a quick motherly kiss on his forehead. "You'd better get to bed Danny. It's getting late." She said, before she left the room, closing the door behind her.

She walked back downstairs, where her husband sat waiting. He would have gone up with her, except for the fact that Maddie was a lot better with these situations than he was. She let out another long sigh as she sat down on the couch next to her husband, looking sadly up at him. "He still won't tell me anything." She reported.

Jack frowned deeply. Even a man with an oblivious nature such as his could notice that something was going on with his son. He had been the first one to spot one of Danny's odder recent habits-leaving in the middle of the night. It wouldn't have been the first time that Danny had to leave the house late at night, but there was something different about how he was doing it lately. Usually when he left, he almost seemed panicked and in a rush, but lately, he seemed far more cool and collected... and somehow dangerous, even.

Jack had tried to stop him from leaving once, but the teenager had merely glared at him, before leaving.

The large man put down the papers he was reading, only casting a brief glance at them, before turning back to his wife. The papers consisted of written descriptions of several Phantom sightings, all of them from within the past few months. As if Danny's strange behavior wasn't enough to worry about, they also had to deal with the fact that one of their worst enemy's seemed to be getting more powerful, and more violent.

Or at least he was some of the time. At other times, he appeared to be no more violent than the Phantom they had faced often for the past four years.

But for now, Jack pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. His son was far more important than any ghost kid. "What do you think we should do?"

Maddie let out a deep sigh. "I don't know, Jack. I just don't know. There's not much we can do if he doesn't tell us what's wrong, and you know I'm not a big fan of violating his privacy." She glared at him momentarily. "_Or _the Fenton Stockades."

"What's going on now is beyond even the correctional powers of a medieval containment device..." Jack said, sounding quite serious. It almost would have been funny if the situation wasn't as serious as it was.

Maddie looked up at her husband, her eyes questioning. "What do we do then?" She asked. "Sometimes it almost feels as if I'm losing him..." She whispered, running a hand through her mahogany hair. "We barely ever spend any time together anymore. It almost feels like I don't even know who he is anymore!"

Jack couldn't think of anything that he could say, so he wrapped his arms around his wife. He wished he knew what to do, but no matter how many times he turned the problem around in his head, almost nothing came to mind.

And what did, he didn't like.

* * *

Sam groaned, looking over at the alarm clock next to her bed. She let out a long sigh, pulling herself up from it. "12: 35..." She muttered in annoyance, running a hand through her hair. "Looks like I'm having another sleepless night..." She let out a deep sigh, pulling off the covers.

She shivered slightly as the cold night air met her bare legs, cursing herself for not washing any of her winter pajamas until she wound up having none left. Her black lace nightie might be nice for summer, but it was no match for winter temperatures around here, especially since her parents refused to run the heater at night.

She flicked on the light by her bedside table, illuminating the room. "Maybe another walk will help put me to sleep." She mumbled, pulling out a pair of black and violet stockings from her dresser, and pulling them on. She put on a matching pair of arm warmers and a black oversized jacket, tugging on a pair of black combat boots.

She quietly slipped out of her room, so as not to wake her parents. If they ever found out that she was taking walks this late at night, they'd probably make sure to lock her door from the outside to keep her in her room. She knew they meant well, but there was a point where her parents overprotective nature really got on her nerves. Normally, one might think that a girl going out alone at night to be a bad idea, but beyond the ghost attacks, Amity Park was actually quite peaceful. The number of crimes caused by humans was fairly low. Not to mention that Sam knew how to defend herself, if it came to that.

She snatched a keyring from the rack by the door, shoving it in her jacket's pocket and slipped quietly out the front door, standing on the front steps for awhile until her eyes adjusted to the dark. It was still wet out from the rain earlier in the day, but it was no longer pouring down rain. The Goth girl carefully made her way down the steps, heading in the direction of the park.

"Huh?" She blinked, stopping in her tracks about halfway there, recognizing someone just ahead of her. "Danny?" She asked herself, her eyebrows knitting together in slight puzzlement. "_DANNY!_" She called out to him, wondering if perhaps there was a ghost loose.

The raven-haired boy stopped walking and turned around, looking over towards Sam. Unlike Sam, he was fully dressed, wearing a black hoodie to shield against the winter cold.

Sam couldn't help but thinking that something seemed off about her friend, even from this distance. "Danny?" She asked again slowly, taking a few steps towards him. There was something strange about his eyes, but she couldn't quite place it from this distance. "What are you doing awake at this time of night?"

The raven-haired teen remained unnervingly silent, taking a long look at the jacket and nightgown clad Goth girl. A slight smirk appeared on his face as he looked at her, which caused Sam to stop dead in her tracks. She had _never _seen Danny with an expression like that before. For a second she thought that she might have made a mistake, and that this _wasn't _Danny. She quickly threw the idea out, considering the fact that he had responded to the name. Danny also managed to stand out from the rest of the male population of Amity Park-or at least he did to her. She could tell who he was from just his voice, she had known him for that long.

And that's why she could also sense that something was wrong now.

"Hmph." Danny's smirk grew a bit. Sam half-expected him to say something else, but instead he turned around and headed down the street. Sam was too stunned to follow after him.

She had figured out what was wrong with his eyes.

They weren't his normal ice blue, or even his ghostly bright green.

They were dark red.


	4. Black, White, and Violet

AN: Chapter four, yo! Wrote this all in one day! I had some major inspiration boosts. (grins) I like this chapter a lot. Here we get our first deep look at Black Danny! (cheers!) He's such a little jerk, he is. But I love him all the same.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Butch Hartman.

* * *

Black and White

Chapter Four: Black, White, and Violet

"Snap out of it Sam..."

Eighteen-year old Sam Manson whispered to herself, shaking her head, closing her eyes. "Come on, there's no way that Danny's eyes could have changed color like that! This poor lighting is just playing tricks on your eyes." She tried to reassure herself, opening her eyes back up. She let out a deep breath, scanning the street, finding that Danny, or at least who she thought was Danny, was no longer there.

She bit her lip, thinking, shifting her weight from her left foot to her right foot in order to keep herself warm. "Was that really Danny, though? Why didn't he come and talk to me?" She frowned. She glanced back towards her home, wondering if maybe she should go back and try to forget about the whole thing.

She then glanced back up the street, in the direction that the maybe-Danny had walked off in. Her frown deepened. "Still... what if that was Danny? And what if he's in some kind of trouble? I promised him I'd try and help him, didn't I?" She asked herself. After glancing back down the street towards her house once more, she shook her head, making her decision. She looked back up the street, a determined look on her face. "I've _got _to follow him."

The streets were starting to ice over, and she didn't want to risk slipping on the ice and hurting herself. She went as fast as the slippery terrain allowed her, worrying that she might not be able to catch up with the maybe-Danny at this rate. She made a frustrated umph, searching around in the dark night for some sign of the maybe-Danny.

By the time she finally spotted him, she had almost given up hope of finding him again. She had to do a double-take to realize that she had found who he was looking for. When she did, her heart missed several beats. The maybe-Danny almost appeared to be waiting for her, leaning against a wall, an eyebrow cocked, a slightly amused smirk on his face. Sam took in a sharp breath, and gathered up her courage, walking over to face him.

Now that she had a closer look at him, she realized that his eyes really _had _changed color. They were a dark red, almost blood at midnight. She noticed upon further examination that they were silted like a serpent's, and that a black line marking had appeared, going through his eye. Only his eyes had changed however. Beyond them, he looked like the same slightly clueless boy that she had always known. "Danny...?" She asked slowly, uncertain.

His amused smirk only grew further. "I knew you'd follow me." He said. Something about his voice made Sam's heart miss a few more beats. His tone was low, almost dangerous. Not to mention the fact that his expression and the way he was carrying himself were almost alien to Danny.

"You... who are you?" Sam asked, cursing herself silently for letting her uncertainty show in her voice. "You aren't Danny, are you?" She asked, this time hiding the uncertainty in her voice.

"You could say that I am, and you could say that I'm not." The raven-haired boy said, sounding amused. "I'd like to think that I'm his better half. Although I'm sure he'd say otherwise if you asked him..." He smirked, taking in the confused look on her face, almost laughing. "Oh, don't tell me. He hasn't told you about yet, has he?" He leaned in closer to her, so that his blood-colored eyes meet with her violet ones.

Sam took an involuntary step backwards, managing to suppress a squeal of surprise. She took another deep breath, and once more gathered up her confidence. This boy, whoever he was, made her feel very uneasy. "No... Which makes me think you're lying..." She said slowly.

But in truth, Sam's mind was jumping back to the times that Danny had broken into a cold sweat earlier in the day. He had said that there was nothing wrong, and made up an excuse about a ghost sense on the fritz, but even then, she had doubted him. Could this other Danny be the reason behind his panicked looks? It almost made sense, but she didn't want to think about the possibility yet.

Then the raven-haired boy did laugh, a loud and amused. He brushed a stray strand of his black hair out of his face, his devilish smirk returning. "'You're going to self-destruct if you keep going at this pace...'" He said, quoting what Sam had said earlier in the day. "You _are _the perceptive one."

Sam's eyes widened, and she found herself taking another involuntary step backwards, stunned. How could he have possibly known that she had said those words? The only possible explanation was one she didn't want to except-that this boy, somehow, was Danny, or at least a part of Danny.

"Yes, that's right..." The other Danny said slowly. "You see, stress tends to do funny things to people..." He smirked, staring straight at Sam. "In his case, it made me."

"What did you do with Danny?" Sam spat out, glaring at him. She prayed silently that he didn't see through her bravado, because she was well and truly frightened. For both herself and Danny. If he was here, then where was Danny? What had happened to the Danny that she knew and loved?

"He's asleep." The other Danny said simply. "And don't worry so much, Sam. I'm not nearly strong enough to take over his body when he's awake..." He paused then, the corner of his lips curling into an amused smirk. "But that won't last for much longer."

Sam stumbled backwards another step, stunned. She had no idea of what to say or what to do. She was silently cursing herself for following Danny.

Danny laughed and ran a hand through his bangs, settling it over his left eye. The serpentine slit in his eye narrowed further, and the amused smirk was replaced with a slightly deranged one. He regarded Sam with his right eye, lowering his hand. "What's wrong Sam?" He asked slowly, his voice low and threatening. "Don't like seeing your little baby this way?"

"I..." Sam stepped back another step, then let out a yelp of surprise when she found that she had walked into someone. She whipped around, turning to stare wide-eyed at the person behind her. It was none other than Danny, the same deranged smirk plastered on his face. "How did you?" Sam looked back, finding that he had moved. She whipped her head back around, staring at him.

Danny laughed. "How did I what?" He asked, taking a step towards her. Sam took a step back. "Did you forget that I'm half-ghost?" He asked, advancing another step. Sam, likewise, retreated another. "I can do anything I want..." He mummered, taking another step forward.

Sam backed up another step, and found her body hitting the brick wall behind her. One of her violet eyes glanced back at it, before it slowly trailed back towards the approaching Danny. She clenched her fist, gritting her teeth. _How stupid of me! How could I have let myself get backed into a corner?_

She closed her eyes and swung her fist as hard as she could. She didn't like that look in this Danny's eyes. It was quite clear to her that this Danny wasn't at all mentally stable.

Her eyes snapped open as she felt her wrist being caught. Her heart almost sunk as she saw that he had caught her punch.

Danny looked at her fist, traces of amusement in his eyes. His blood-colored eyes then trailed back towards the nightgown-clad Goth girl, an amused smirk appearing on his face. "Hmf. You have some backbone, don't you?" He asked, slowly. Sam struggled, trying to pry her wrist free from his grasp, but to no avail. He had her firmly in his clutches.

Danny leaned down towards her, so that his serpentine-silted eyes could meet with her violet ones. Sam felt a cold chill rush down her spine and she welded her eyes shut, blocking out the view of the demented look in his eyes. She gulped, clenching her free fist. She wanted to try again, to try and strike at him, but her fear kept her down, showing through her bravado.

Her eyes snapped open suddenly as she felt warmth against her lips, and found that, to her shock, Danny was kissing her. Her eyes widened further and she tried once more to get loose, but the raven-haired boy still held her firmly in his grasp.

Much to her chagrin, Sam found that she was beginning to lose herself in his kiss. Her eyes slowly fluttered closed, then shot wide open again. She tried to desperately cling to the part of her that knew this was wrong, but that part kept on getting further and further away from her. Before she knew it, her eyes were closing again, and this time, they stayed closed.

Her fist went limp in his hand. She barely registered that he had let her arm go, letting it fall limply back down in her side. Now the only thing she could seem to focus on was the kiss. Everything else was lost to her, retreating back into a part of her mind where she could no longer reach it.

Danny sensed this. He felt her giving in, and he felt her giving up. He sensed her yearning, her desire for more. He sensed all this, and in sensing her surrender, he found that all his interest in her was lost. Now that she wasn't fighting, now that she wasn't struggling, he didn't desire her as much anymore. Resistance against him might be futile, but it certainly did make things more interesting. Or at least it did for him.

Sam's eyes slowly opened as she felt the warmth of his lips retreat, wondering why the kiss had stopped, just when she had gotten into it. She couldn't remember for the second anything except for the kiss, the feeling of his lips locked against hers, and the tremendous feeling of release that it had brought. She had been keeping all of her feelings for Danny bottled up inside her for so long, it almost felt like she was about to bust. The kiss had been like a dam breaking, and there was no way for her to resist the feelings that it brought with it.

Then, all at once, her memories came back to her. Her violet eyes widened in horror as she realized what had happened, and what she had just done. In disgust, she whipped her lips against the sleeve of her jacket, trying desperately to wipe his taste from her, to push aside the memory of the pleasure that it had brought her.

Danny laughed. Now this was what he liked. He smirked slightly, crossing his arms in front of him. "My, my. Aren't you a dirty little harlot?" He asked, arching an eyebrow and tilting his head slightly to the side. "I wonder what he would have to say about this if he found out..." It was clear to Sam that 'he' meant the Danny she knew. "You're lucky he's asleep right now, but I don't know if I feel like keeping this information to myself..."

"You.. you jerk!" Sam spat out, lowering her arm, her violet eyes blazing with fury, at both herself and him. She was angry at him for doing something like that, and she was angry at herself for giving into it, and furthermore, for liking it. Even now she couldn't deny that she had rejoiced at the feeling of the kiss. "That was my first!"

"Yes, I know." The other Danny said simply, amused. "And I plan on taking your second, your third, and all the ones after it as well." Now that she was angry at him again, he found that his desire for her was returning.

Sam glared at him for one final time, before she took off, racing away from him. She hated the fact that she was running away from something, but she needed to get away from him, in order to collect her jumbled thoughts. If she was going to face this alter-ego of Danny, she needed to do it with a clear head, and on her own terms.

Danny merely smirked, watching her go. He slid his hands into his pockets and stared at her retreating form until she was out of sight. He then turned, heading deeper into the night. His other self's day might have just ended, but his was just beginning.

* * *

"And that is why... Ah, Mr. Fenton, so good of you to join us." Mr. Lancer looked from the blackboard, over to the raven-haired boy who had just entered. He frowned slightly. Once again, Danny appeared exhausted, and had come to class late.

"Sorry I'm late..." Danny muttered, his light blue eyes looking tiredly around the classroom. They fell on Sam's empty desk, and he frowned. "Sam's not here today?" He asked, looking over at Mr. Lancer.

The bald teacher shook his head. "I'm afraid Mrs. Manson called her in sick today." He was almost surprised at the fact that Danny didn't already know. Usually he, Sam, and Tucker were tied around the hips.

_Sick, huh? Heh._

Danny's blood ran cold at the voice, and his eyes narrowed. "What did you do to her?" He asked to his other self, forgetting that he was in public, in front of the class.

Mr. Lancer blinked, surprised at the boy's sudden outburst. "Mr. Fenton? Are you allright?" He looked at him, concerned. Why on earth did he think he had done something to Samantha? "You look tired... Maybe you should go see the nurse..." The teacher said slowly.

Danny looked up at the teacher, remembering where he was. The entire class, with the exception of Tucker and Mr. Lancer, was staring at him, looking at him like he was crazy. "Y-yeah..." He said slowly. "I'm sorry I'm just... under some stress right now..." He mumbled out.

Tucker looked just as worried as Mr. Lancer. He got up from his desk, the noise of his chair screeching back against the floor attracting the attention of everyone in the room. "Um, Mr. Lancer, if it's okay, I'll walk Danny over to the nurse's office so we can call his parents."

"Very well..." Mr. Lancer said slowly. "Go on." He looked back at Danny. "And Mr. Fenton... if there is anything that you fell like you need to talk about, do feel free to come and see me after class."

Danny nodded slowly, a bit surprised at the offer. He let Tucker led him out of the door.

Tucker waited until the door had closed to turn to face Danny. "Okay, are you going to tell me what's been going on?" He asked, staring at him point-blank. "I know something's been going on with you for awhile Danny, but I didn't want to be rude and ask about it. I'd thought you'd trust me enough to tell me about everything eventually."

Danny let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair. He didn't want to have this confrontation right now, he just wanted to get over to Sam's house and find out exactly what his other self had done to her. "Tucker, it's just... complicated." He said, taking his hand out of his bangs, looking at him. "It's not that I don't trust you, but..."

"But what?" Tucker asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow. "Danny, dude, I'm your best friend. We've known each other since we were in diapers. Believe me, whatever's going on, I can handle it."

Danny sighed again, debating whether or not he should just tell Tucker about being half-ghost and get it over with, or if he should just make up some excuse and leave. He looked at him, taking in the expectant look on his best friend's face, and let out another deep sigh. Why was he even thinking of trying to keep his secret from him? Tucker was right, they had been friends forever, for even longer than he had been friends with Sam. He should have known that he could trust him.

"Tucker... listen. I know what I'm about to tell you is going to sound absurd, but you have to believe me when I say it's the truth." Danny began.

"I'm listening..." Tucker said.

"About four years ago, I got into this accident in my parent's lab." Danny continued. He saw Tucker nod, recalling the accident, and how freaked out he had been after it. "It changed me. It made me... well, it made me half-ghost." He said simply.

"Half-ghost?" Tucker asked, arching an eyebrow. Danny nodded. Tucker frowned, looking over his friend carefully. He was right, it did sound absurd. And yet he could tell that as absurd as it sounded, Danny wasn't lying. He knew him well enough to know when he was telling a whopper, even though he didn't always press the issue when he did.

He started putting two and two together in his head. "So, you're Phantom, aren't you?" He asked. Once again, Danny nodded. He should have noticed the similarities between the two before, but it just wasn't something that one archetypally thought about. "Well..." Tucker said, frowning slightly, trying to think of what to say. "Um, keep up the good work protecting the town?" He eventually got out, shrugging his shoulders.

Danny gave him a half-smile. "Thanks, Tucker. Promise you won't tell anyone?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Did you not hear the part earlier where I said that I was your best friend and that I would never betray your trust?" Tucker answered his question with a question, arching an eyebrow slightly.

Tucker wasn't a fool, he knew that there was something else that Danny wasn't telling him. But right now, it seemed to him that Danny really wanted to get out of here, and for right now, he would let that go.

"Yeah, I did." Danny said. "Look, Tucker, I have to go see Sam..." He began.

Tucker held up a hand to stop him. "No problem. Go on. I'll just tell Mr. Lancer that you're going home early. And tell Sam that I told her to feel better soon. It royally sucks when our triangle is broken up."

Danny gave him another half-smile, before he turned and walked down the hallway, heading out of the school building. He slipped into the alleyway next to the building, letting himself shift into his ghost form. He opened his now-green eyes and took to the air, flying in the direction of Sam's house. At the speed he was going, it wasn't long before he reached it.

He hesitated, floating outside of her window. Her black blinds were shut, although for Sam that wasn't entirely unusual. "What did you do to her...?" He asked his other self again. His darker half still hadn't provided him with an answer.

_What you've always wanted._

Danny's eyes widened. "You kissed her?" He shouted, surprised. He cursed himself silently. He should have known that if the two of them ever met, that he would try something like that. It was one of the reasons that Danny had been trying to stay awake at night as much as possible. His other self didn't seem much inclined to take over his body when he fell asleep during the daytime. But he didn't know how much longer that would last.

_Yep. She tasted wonderful. I bet she would have tasted even better though if I burnt her lips a little beforehand?_

"You're sick..." Danny whispered, his eyes narrowing. The fact that his other self had a strange, almost sexual obsession with fire, and burning things disturbed him. But the fact that his other self had come from some part of his subconscious, combined with the stress he was undergoing, disturbed him even more, because he knew that meant it was possible for him to someday become like the person he hated the most.

_Maybe I am._

Danny shook his head. He had to focus on Sam right now. He couldn't spend time arguing with himself. He took a deep breath and phased through her wall. The room was dark inside, and all of the lights were off. Danny, however, could see in the dark, and spotted Sam on her bed. She was covered by her violet covers up to her waist, and her knees were pulled up to her chest. Her arms were cradling them, and she had her head resting on a black pillow that was placed upon her knees. She looked like she had been crying.

Danny floated over to her, looking down at her. He couldn't help but feel responsible for the state she was in, as well as what had happened to her. But he could at least try and explain things to her, and pray that his friendship with her wasn't lost forever. It was a friendship that he valued very much, and he didn't want to lose it to some deranged alter-ego.

He turned tangible, landing by her bed. "Sam..." He whispered softly. The Goth girl didn't look up, although Danny knew that she was awake. "Sam..." He said again. The Goth girl still showed no signs of responding to him. He let out a long sigh. "Sam, I'm so sorry. I should have told you the whole story. I didn't mean for that to happen to you..."

A few minutes of silence passed, and Danny was about ready to give up when Sam spoke. "He told you...?" She asked slowly, raising her head from her pillow. Her tear-stained eyes met with his bright green ones, and he saw a hint of relief cross over her face as she saw them.

"Yeah..." He said slowly. "He did..."

To his surprise, Sam apologized. "I'm sorry Danny." She said, taking the pillow on her knees and putting it beside her, straightening out her legs.

Danny blinked, confused. "Sam, I'm the one who should be sorry. I slept through the whole thing, and didn't even know that you were suffering. I should have tried harder to stay awake."

Sam looked away from him then, in shame. "I wasn't... wasn't suffering." She choked out. "I was... at first, but then... when he... kissed me..." She turned back to look at him, fresh tears streaming down her face. "I started to like it!" She said, letting out a shuddering sob, drawing her knees back up to her chest once more, sobbing into them.

Danny stared at her, unsure of what to say, and what to do. He had never seen Sam like. He had never seen her so weak or so vulnerable before, and honestly, it unnerved him a little. He sighed slightly, taking a seat next to her on her bed, wrapping his arms around her, placing his head on top of hers. "Sam, I don't blame you for this. Any of this. The other me..." He began. "He's crazy. He doesn't know right from wrong."

"But I still liked it..." She whispered, her voice muffled.

"That's okay, Sam. I forgive you." He said, stroking her hair slightly. "I forgive you..." He repeated, keeping the girl in his embrace. He held her until she finished crying, silently praying that he would be able to find a way to destroy his other self. He didn't care if his darker side knew what he was thinking now.

He had hurt Sam.

He couldn't forgive him for that.


	5. For Your Own Good

AN: Chapter Five! Everybody party! Have I mentioned that Black Danny is insanely fun to write as? Scenes with him just seem to fly right by. I love him so much! Also, I gots a wonderful piece of fanart that was done by the super wonderful Nom-chan! She's too good to me, I tell you. Go check it out and give her some well-deserved love! www. deviantart. com / view / 35934297 / (take out the spaces)

Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, and I'm not making a profit from this.

* * *

Black and White

Chapter Five: For Your Own Good

"Danny..."

Danny looked over at Sam, removing his arms from around her, resting them on her shoulders. He looked at her with concern in his eyes. This was the first word she had spoken to him since he had embraced her ten minutes ago. She had spent about eight minutes of that crying her eyes out, and the next two in silence, slowly trying to piece herself back together. Danny had said nothing during all of this, fearing that if he did, he would only say something that would make things worse.

"What is it?" He asked, removing his hands from her shoulders and placing them by his sides.

The tear-stained Goth girl took in another deep breath, moving her hands to wipe the ghosts of old tears away from her eyes. She looked up at him then, the hybrid's own concern for her was mirrored in her eyes. "What are you going to do?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.

"I don't know..." He heaved a sigh, looking down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them into fists. "I don't know if there's anything I can do except try and resist him." He looked up at her. "But it isn't easy."

"Does he always..." Sam paused, working out the words with her tongue before she spoke them."...take you over when you go to sleep?"

"I'm not sure if he always does it..." The ghost hybrid mummered. "But it's likely that he does." He frowned. "That's why I've been falling asleep in class so much lately. I've been trying to avoid going to sleep at night."

Sam blinked a few times. "Why doesn't he just come out when you fall asleep in class then?" She asked slowly.

Danny frowned. "I'm not sure. I think it's because I'm not that out of it."

Sam nodded slowly, before she took Danny's hands in her own, settling them in his lap. "Danny, you know my promise to do whatever I could to help you fight ghosts?" She asked, her violet eyes staring into his bright green ones.

Danny nodded. Of course he remembered that promise.

"Well, it extends to this. To him." She said, a weak smile on her face. "It'd be a cold day in hell before I let my best friend be taken away by some deranged alter-ego."

_Aww, isn't that sweet?_

Danny glared, his eyes flashing a brighter green. "Would you shut up?" He blinked then, looking at Sam, flushing darkly, once he saw the stunned look on her face. "Uh, I'm sorry Sam, I wasn't talking to you I was..."

_Talking to yourself?_

"Shut up..." The ghost hybrid mummered under his breath, his eye twitching. He shook his head and looked back at Sam. "To him."

Sam blinked, looking at Danny, surprised. "You mean, he's in there right now? Talking to you?" She questioned. She would have thought that this... this Black Danny would have been asleep when the more dominant personality was active. The fact that this wasn't the case disturbed her, and she couldn't help but wonder just how much mental power his alter-ego had.

"Yes." He groaned, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, he's kind of hard to ignore."

Sam smiled at him, shaking her head. "It's allright." Her eyes met with his again. "If I left you alone just because of this, then I'd be the biggest hypocrite on the planet." She whispered, her eyes locked with his still. Even though they were somewhat strange to her-bright green, she found all the same familiarity that she did when she looked into his blue ones.

She suddenly became aware of the fact that their hands were touching, and she turned a light shade of crimson. Danny had noticed this too, and had a likewise blush on his face. Neither of them could manage to separate their hands from the other, nor could they tear their eyes away from each other.

They hadn't gotten this close to each other in years, and over those years, both of them had begun to realize that they had feelings for each other. And neither of them could admit them to the other. The two continued to stare into each others eyes, their feelings pounding away at the dams they had built around their feelings, until at last they both broke.

Everything was instinctive then. Their eyes closed, and both of them leaned towards the other, knowing as if by years of practice where to find the other's mouth, their lips locking in a kiss, both pouring out years of pent up feelings in it. Their hands unlocked, Sam's drifting to his torso, holding him gently, while Danny's held her back, pushing her lightly backwards on the bed so that he was on top of her. Rings of ice blue light formed around his torso, and his white hair and green eyes were traded for his black hair and light blue eyes, unable to hold his transformation during this.

Sam let herself be taken in by the waves of love that seemed to be pouring from the body of her best friend, of the boy she had known forever, and the one she loved more than anything else in the world. Her thoughts of what had happened to her last night, the unwanted kiss from the darker half of Danny slipping from her memory, becoming overshadowed by this one. For a moment, all her troubles were washed away, and there was nothing left but the love they shared.

But they all came back in a rush with a sharp pain, the feeling of fingernails digging into rush, and a sudden alteration in the air itself. Her violet eyes snapped open, telling from just the way her heart had started pounding that something had changed. She found herself staring into a pair of blood-colored eyes, a cold shiver running down the length of her spine. She felt his tongue slip into her mouth, sending another shiver down her spine, borne out of feelings of both violation and pleasure.

Fighting back the tide of pleasure she that was coming over-gods, but this Danny could kiss- she moved her arms from his waist and pushed at him, trying to get the boy off of her. His tongue slipped from her mouth and he pulled up from her, his hands moving from her back to her arms so that he had her pinned beneath him.

"You're beautiful when you're struggling." His amused voice whispered, a cruel smirk forming. His fingernails dug into her arms, sending waves of pain through the raven-haired girl.

"And you're sick..." Sam whispered through gritted teeth, glaring up at him. "What did you do to the real Danny?" She hissed.

"I couldn't stand the fact that he was enjoying himself so much, and so I decided to take over for awhile." He whispered, his voice at once both soft and menacing. He smirked, leaning back towards her, tilting his head so that he was closer to one of her ears. "Besides, this position was too perfect..." He whispered, before he leaned a tad closer and sunk his teeth into the tip of her ear.

Sam let out a loud gasp, her eyes going wide from the pain coursing through her body. She trembled, her heart pounding, realizing that she was terrified of this other Danny.

"Hn." The other Danny parted his teeth from her ear, playfully trailing his tongue around it's curve, sending a different kind of shiver running down the raven-haired girl's body. "You're very amusing..." He whispered.

Sam opened her mouth to try and say something, but all at once she felt the pain from his piercing fingernails recede. The blood-colored eyes shifted, fading back into a light blue color, his smirk becoming replaced by an appalled look. The real Danny let go of her arms, pulling away from her so quickly that ended up tumbling off the bed, letting out a slight moan of pain.

The movements that had been frozen when the Black Danny had pinned her down came back in a rush, and she jolted up, quickly hopping off her bed and running around the side. "Danny!"

"Ugh..." The raven-haired boy moaned, pulling himself up from the ground, holding his head.

"Are you allright?" Sam asked worriedly, placing a hand on his arm.

"No... I'm not..." He mumbled, his light blue eyes meeting Sam's, a mixed look of shame and fear in them. "Sam, I'm so sorry... I didn't know he could do that." He whispered hoarsely, a violent shiver running over his body.

"He's never done that before...?" She whispered lightly, keeping her grip on his arm. The knot of fear in her stomach tightened.

"No..." Danny shook his head, dropping his hand from his head. "Sam... Oh Gods, I think he's getting stronger."

With that statement, all of Sam's fears about the strength of the Black Danny were confirmed. Her mouth hung open slightly, groping at the empty air, trying to find some words of reassurance for the boy she loved. But nothing came to her, and the silence where her words should have been hung heavily between them, only to be broke by the creaking of a door opening.

"Sammie? What's wrong, I heard a..." Her stunned mother stopped talking, her mouth hanging open, staring at the two raven-haired teens in the room in shock. "...noise...?" She finished, blinking a few times. "Daniel, how did you get _in _here?" She asked then, surprised, quickly crossing the space between the three of them. "I don't recall letting you in, and I highly doubt my husband would let you in either!"

Her head turned then, looking at Sam, pure worry in her eyes. "And Sammie, you should be in bed! You're sick, aren't you?" She asked, placing a hand on her daughter's arm. Her blue eyes widened in horror as they looked up them, falling upon the places where Black Danny's fingernails had sunk into her, breaking the skin. "Sammie, what happened?" She exclaimed, looking at her daughter in horror.

"Oh, I..." Was all Sam managed to get out before her mother jumped to her own, partially correct conclusions. The red-head woman whipped around, dropping Sam's arm, and glaring at the raven-haired teenager behind her.

"You! You sneaked in here and tried to hurt my daughter!" She shouted. "Jeremy!" Sam's mother screamed, drawing her blonde husband to the door.

"Yes honey? What's the matter..." He noticed Danny then, blinking a few times. "Hey, when did that Fenton kid get in here?" He asked.

"I don't know, but he hurt our daughter!" Mrs. Manson declared, grabbing Sam's arm and showing the nail marks to him. Her husband's eyes narrowed, and he glared at Danny.

"I always _knew _there was something wrong with you." He said coldly, either ignoring the panicked and fearful look in Danny's eyes, or interpreting it as something else. "I'm going to call your parents and make sure they deal with you appropriately!" Not that he much liked the adult Fentons either, but he knew they would most certainly give their son a fitting punishment. And if they didn't, he would.

"Mom, dad, wait, he didn't do anything!" Sam protested, stepping in front of her raven-haired friend. Danny was still too stunned by what had just happened with his other self, that he couldn't seem to find any words to defend himself-even if her parents were half right. But she wasn't exactly about to tell them that Danny had developed a horrible case of multiple personality disorder. She would probably never see him again if she said that.

"Then who was it Sammie?" Her mother asked expectantly. "And just _how _did he get in here in the first place?"

_There's nothing like the first whiff of suspicion in the morning._ The voice in Danny's head taunted, causing him to clench his fists slightly. It almost felt like his Black side had predicted what was coming.

Sam bit her lip, possible explanations racing through her mind. "Well, he did sneak in here, that's true... b-but, he only did it because he had heard at school that I was sick, and was worried so he sneaked in to see me!" She explained, shouting rather than speaking. "And I was having a nightmare... so..."

Danny stopped her there, putting a hand on her shoulder. The Goth girl turned around, staring at him in confusion. "Danny...?" She asked slowly. The ghost hybrid shook his head. "But..."

Danny let out a long sigh, turning to face the two Mansons, his hand dropping down from Sam's shoulder. "I'm sorry, but... you're right. It was me, and for what it's worth, it was an accident, and I apologize."

"Well, as much as we appreciate the fact that you told the truth, Daniel, I'm afraid we just can't let you see our daughter again anytime soon." Mr. Manson said firmly, to which Mrs. Manson agreed. "We have to ask you to leave now while we sort out the future of your friendship with her."

Sam looked between her parents and Danny, her eyes wide. "But!" She protested, unsure to which party she was doing the protesting too, if not both.

Danny shook his head once more, looking down at the ground. "I'm sorry, Sam..." He whispered. "It's just better this way." His voice lowered then, so only Sam could hear her. "He wants to make you his, and the longer I stay with you, the more I'm afraid that I can't fight him back. And I don't want to loose control of myself, or loose you to him."

He looked at Sam's parents then, nodding in slow agreement. "Allright. I'll go." He shoved his hands in his pockets, and took one last look at Sam, his sorrowful blue eyes meeting with her pleading violet ones one last time, before he turned to leave, walking out of the room.

_Awww, how sweet. Did you learn those lines from some stupid romance movie?_

"Shut up." He whispered through gritted teeth, his eyes turning bright green in fury. "If it weren't for you none of this would have happened."

_Yeah, I know. Good thing I'm around then, huh?_

"I hate you." Danny hissed, opening the front door and stepping outside into the winter cold.

_Thanks. I hate you too._

His green eyes narrowed. "I'm not going to let you take me over anymore. You're _never _going to touch Sam again."

The voice let out an amused laugh. _And yet you're not invincible, are you? You have to sleep sometime. And did I mention that I'm always growing stronger? You might be able to force control back from me now, but that's not going to last forever._

Danny said nothing back. He knew that he was right, and worse, he knew that his other self knew that he knew he was right. He knew that he couldn't handle this on his own anymore. He needed to talk to someone who would understand, someone who could help him, someone he knew wouldn't walk away from him or worse.

He needed to talk with Jazz.


	6. Something of an Understanding

**AN: **Chapter Six is here! (cheers) This chapter was pretty fun to write. I love aftermath chapters, they're always fun. And we get some lovely Danny angst this chapter, so it's like double win! Whoo! Anyways, enjoy the read, and review! I likes 'em.

Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, and I'm not making any money off of this.

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Black and White

Chapter Six: Something of an Understanding

"Danny? What on earth are you doing home so early?" Maddie Fenton got up from the chair in the living room, where she had been working on her latest ghost hunting gadget. She looked over towards her son, her eyes concerned as she approached him, placing her hands lightly on his shoulders. She could tell just from the way he looked that something was wrong.

"Do you have a fever?" She asked worriedly, putting her hand to her son's forehead. He didn't feel any different than he normally did. "Honey?" She asked, a bit un-nerved by his silence.

Danny slowly shook his head, his eyes not meeting her gaze. "No... I'm just..." He sighed. "I just don't feel well."

"Is it something you want to talk about, honey?" Maddie asked slowly, her hand still firmly on his shoulders. This wasn't the first time that Danny had just come home from school without much of an explanation, but he always looked like he really needed it, and so Maddie and Jack had obliged. He usually slept for the rest of the day.

But she could see already that this time was somehow different.

"I..." Danny began, then sighed again, shaking his head. "No, I'm sorry mom. I just... need some alone time right now." He looked up at her, and Maddie was almost taken aback by what she saw in his eyes-a mixture of confusion, shame, fear, and pain. "Is that allright?"

Maddie smiled sadly at him, giving his shoulders a tight, loving squeeze before she released them, nodding. "That's allright..." She whispered, stepping aside to let her son by. She watched him go up the stairs. He was halfway up them before she spoke again, her voice just loud enough for him to hear. "But... you will tell me what's wrong when you're ready, won't you?" She asked.

The raven-haired teenager didn't look back. He merely paused briefly, nodding slightly. But that would do. Maddie already knew that he felt guilty for keeping something as important as whatever must have been going on with him from her, so she didn't want to push him. "Thank you." She said, and her son continued on up the stairs, not stopping until he reached his room.

Maddie let out a long sigh as his door closed, heading back towards her chair and sitting down in it. She let out another sigh, trying to sort out her thoughts. She didn't feel like working on the new anti-ghost weapon anymore.

* * *

Danny slumped down on his bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. He hated the fact that he had to continue to lie to his parents like this. He knew that he was starting to worry them deeply, and he couldn't deny the guilt that knowing this brought him.

But at the same time, he wasn't sure he could trust them not to react in a negative way. His parents had said over and over that if they captured a ghost, then they would study it for all it was worth. Not to mention that they might interpret his new personality's presence as some sort of warning sign that their son was beginning to turn evil.

But what if that _was _exactly what was happening?

What if he _was _slowly turning evil?

In that case, then was this dark version of himself, the Black Danny, actually the real one? Was he just the bits and pieces of his humanity struggling against an impending darkness? He shook his head. He didn't like the direction his thoughts were going in, especially since he knew that _he _could see them all.

_Having some doubts, are we?_ Sure enough, the amused voice drifted into the back of his mind.

"Shut up." Danny mumbled through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed and changed into a blazing green color. "Just shut up, okay!" He shouted. Doubtless his mother heard him and he groaned, realizing that his Black side was once again trying to piss him off on purpose.

_Tsk. Now what would you do if your mother came in here when you had those eyes?_

"She'd accept me, that's what." Danny grumbled, the bright green color fading back into his normal light blue eyes.

_Hnnn. And this is coming from the boy who was just worrying about how much time he'd have to run before his mother found the right scalpel to use for his dissection._

Danny's eyebrow twitched, but he ignored his other half's taunts. They stung even more when he knew that he was right. He sighed, getting up from the bed and picking up the phone on his nightstand. He didn't like the idea of calling his sister to come back home, but he knew that she was one of the few people he could probably honestly talk to this about without them freaking out on him.

Jazz had never been interested in ghosts, not even when they had been proven without a shadow of a doubt to exist to her. She was far more concerned with her future career-becoming a psychologist. Danny had never been too fond of them, but then again, his only real experience with one ended with the psychologist being a ghost who fed of teen angst. Ironically, now that he thought about it, he had Jazz to thank for helping him send Spectra back into the Ghost Zone. If it weren't for her coming in with the Ghost Peeler, he was honestly unsure about how that fight would have ended.

After that, however, she had shown no further interest in pursuing a career similar to her parents. If it weren't for that fact, he wouldn't have even thought about trusting her with his secrets. But he knew that she was the best person to turn to at a time like this. And he needed to talk to someone.

He had considered trying to talk to Sam about it, but that was before what he had learned what his other half had done to her, and long before what had happened in the bedroom just a few minutes ago. He didn't want to risk losing her by putting her directly in the line of fire.

Going to Tucker had crossed his mind briefly, but he had quickly discarded the idea. It wasn't that he didn't trust the African-American teen, he did, but he also knew that Tucker wasn't exactly the best person to turn to when you needed advice.

He couldn't talk to his parents. He just couldn't.

_Oh please, like that sunshine ball's going to do anything to me? _The voice rang in his head._ Just give up already. You know I'm going to win eventually._

Danny ignored him, dialing the number to Jazz's cell phone. He knew that she had it on at almost all times. It was the quickest way to reach her. He let out a deep breath as the phone rang, feeling his heart pound from a mixture of nervousness and anticipation as he waited for her to answer.

After about two rings, his older sister picked up the phone. "Hello?" She asked, and he could almost hear the surprise in her voice. "Danny? What is it? You almost never call me."

"Jazz..." The raven-haired boy mumbled, leaning against the headboard of his bed. "I really need you to come home..." He whispered, just loud enough for the woman to hear. He didn't have to tell her that he really needed to talk to someone. She would already know.

There was a slight pause before Jazz spoke again. "Allright Danny. I'll catch the next flight back to Amity Park, and then we can talk." He could almost see her proud smile. "I'm glad you finally want to talk to someone, Danny. Mom and dad have been worrying about you for a long time now."

Danny sighed. "I know they have Jazz, it's just..." He ran a hand through his hair, closing his eyes. "It's just that I thought that I could work through everything on my own. And I could for awhile... but..." He shook his head. "It got worse. A lot worse."

He could almost see Jazz's knowing nod over the phone. "I understand. I'll be there as soon as I can, allright? You don't have to talk to me about it over the phone."

"...Thanks, Jazz. You have no idea how much this means to me." He whispered.

"It's no problem, Danny. You're my little brother, and I love you. I would do everything in my power to help you, whenever you needed it." He could see the older girl smile. "I'll see you soon. Goodbye, little bro." She hung up the phone after Danny whispered a goodbye of his own.

Danny lowered the phone, letting out a deep sigh of relief, a wave of it rushing through his body. For the first time in awhile, he felt slightly relaxed. It had been a mistake for him to keep all of this locked up inside of him after all. He imagined that it was because of that that his darker self had come into existence in the first place.

At least, it was a lot less frightening of a thought than if he was slowly turning evil.

He opened his eyes, removing the hand that he still had intertwined with his hair from his his head. Lowering it, he paused, blinking and staring down at it with a frown. He looked at his fingernails closely, noticing little flecks of dark red in them, wondering what they were.

He could taste bile rise in his throat as he realized what it must have been. Blood, Sam's blood from when his darker self had dug their fingernails into her skin. His light blue eyes went wide and he practically bolted off the bed, heading quickly for the bathroom, locking the door to it behind him. He flipped open the toilet seat and hurled. A cold shiver raced through his body, as the fact that he really had hurt Sam, had drawn her blood hit him like a cold a wave.

"Oh god..." He whispered.

He could hear the cruel laughter in the back of his head, his other self amused at his pain. _I was wondering when you'd do that. _Disturbingly, Danny felt the echoes of a smirk form on his own face, his mouth opening up against his will. "I wonder what you would have done if I had drawn more."

The feeling of relief he had just moments earlier had vanished from him completely, the cold, growing knot of fear once again taking center stage. His hands rushed up, covering his mouth, his eyes gone wide with horror. His other self had sensed the moment of weakness, and he had used it to take over parts of him. He could feel his presence now, stronger than he usually did, a wave of cold trying to tear at his mind.

He let out a few ragged breaths, closing his eyes and concentrating, trying to suppress his darker self. Slowly, he felt the cold presence fade, but whether or not he had anything to do with it, he couldn't be entirely sure. "Oh god..." He whispered again, sitting slumped against the bathroom wall. He felt like hurling again, but there was nothing left in his stomach to empty.

"Pull yourself together, Danny..." He whispered to himself, placing a hand on his head. "Come on, just pull yourself together... This is what he wants..." He let out another ragged breath, before he pulled himself up off the bathroom floor, and walking in a slight daze over towards the sink. He turned it on, pulling out the fingernail brush, and started to work at getting the blood out from underneath his fingernails.

As he did so, the feeling of disgust rose in him again, and he had to rush back over to the toilet, retching in it once again. It looked like his stomach did contain enough for more after all.

When his fingernails were finally free of Sam's blood, he opened the door, exiting the room. His eyes were dropping slightly, he couldn't help but be tired. Today had been a long day, and it was barely even ten yet. He needed something to keep him awake. He headed downstairs, thinking to get some coffee, but pausing on the steps when he heard voices. Unsure of why he was doing it, he stood very still and turned invisible, listening.

His parents were sitting on the couch, both of them looking grimly serious. "He's come home early again, Jack." He heard his mother say. "I'm worried about him. He won't tell me what's wrong, and whatever is wrong seems to keep on getting worse."

"I'm worried about him too, Maddie, but I don't know what we can do if he won't talk to us." Her husband sighed. Danny felt guilt overwhelm him-usually his father could stay cluelessly cheerful in even some of the most intense situations. But this was different. His father was serious, any traces of his cheerful oblivion were lost.

"The Mansons called." His mother said, and those words struck Danny hard in the gut. They had said they wouldn't call! And yet they had done it anyways. He should have expected as much.

"Jack, they said Danny hurt Sam." He heard his mother speak again after a brief silence. "They saw fingernail marks all along her arms, and teeth marks on one of her ears." There was another pause. "I saw blood underneath his fingernails when he came home. I didn't say anything at the time but..." She shook her head. "God, Jack, what's happening to our son?"

A wave of emotions were rushing through Danny at this point. He was angry. Angry at himself for being so stupid to let this happen to himself. Angry at the Mansons for going back on their word. Angry at his darker self for what he did. Angry at his parents for thinking that he was becoming some sort of monster.

There was shame. Shame at what was happening to him, shame about what his other self had done, and would continue doing. He felt ashamed for lying to his parents, causing them to worry so much, feeling so confused about what was happening to their son.

There was fear. Fear of his other self, and just how much power he was gaining. Fear that he wouldn't be able to keep himself in control for much longer. Fear that he was going to do something he would regret. And fear that people would misunderstand, that his parents would think he was possessed, and end up hurting, maybe even destroying him.

"I thought the Mansons didn't even like Danny." His father frowned. "Why would they even let him in their house in the first place?"

"They didn't." Maddie said simply.

Another knot of fear joined the growing one. It felt to him that they were right on the verge of finding out what he was. He didn't want that, not like this. Not when he was like this. Panic surged through him in a wave, and for the first time in three years, he lost control of his powers, slipping back into visibility.

His mother noticed him as he appeared on the stairs, from the corner of her eye. Her eyes went wide and she whipped her head around, staring at the frightened boy standing there, her stunned violet eyes meeting his terrified light blue ones. For a moment she could have sworn that he had come out of nowhere-but that was impossible. Just because her son had managed to get into the Manson home without them noticing did not mean that he was what she thought he was.

"Danny?" She spoke up, breaking the silence. Had he heard them talking though? Oh god, if so, she must have made him feel terrible! "Danny?" She asked again, getting up from the couch and walking towards him, her expression one of concern.

The raven-haired boy seemed to panic, moving before she could do anything, quickly leaving the house. "Danny!" Maddie shouted behind him, flinging the door back open and looking around frantically, but he was nowhere to be found.

By now her husband had joined her, staring too out into the cold wintry landscape. It had started to snow again, and the streets would likely be covered in it in no time. He had seen Danny on the staircase as well, but because of how he was sitting, he had gotten a better view of it then his wife. His son _had _simply appeared out of nowhere. Just like a ghost.

"Jack..." His wife spoke, her voice barely a whisper. "Oh Jack... you don't think he could be..."

"He hasn't been the only person acting strangely lately." Her husband replied with a frown. Maddie didn't respond, knowing what he was talking about. As she closed the door, the other person came to her mind. Amity Park's most infamous ghost- Phantom.

The more she thought about it, the more the similarities became clear to her. In truth, though, they had been clear to her all along, but she had simply pushed them out of her mind, not even wanting to think about the possibility.

But now she couldn't hold back the thoughts any longer.

Danny and Phantom. Her son, who had been the one to turn on the Ghost Portal. The ghost boy that she was determined to capture and send back to the Ghost Zone.

She saw it now.

Though their hair, eye, and skin color was different, their physical structures and hairstyles were the same. The overall nature of the two teenage boys was similar too-she had never really seen Phantom as a truly malevolent spirit. She hadn't been too surprised when the knowledge came to her that he had been framed for the ghost invasion and the attack on the mayor. She still, however, believed that he needed to return to the Ghost Zone. It wasn't right for a ghost to try and live among humans.

They even had some of the same wounds. She had seen them on her son-assorted bruises, cuts, limps. She had never asked him about them, never knowing how to bring up the subject. He didn't seem inclined to talk about either. Now she cursed herself for her stupidity. She should have confronted him about them back when they had first started to show up.

Phantom had started to act strangely around the same time that Danny had. He was occasionally seen talking to himself, mostly yelling angrily, telling himself to shut up. He started to have panicked expressions, the same time Danny had them, and stopped getting them the same time Danny had. His fighting had become rather erratic, and there were just times when he didn't seem like himself at all, namely at night.

There were times when, just like Danny, she saw him looking at them for help, the expression in his dead eyes, reflecting the ones she saw in her son too often these days.

She saw it now.

They were the same person all along.

"Oh god, Jack... Oh god." Maddie stared at him, knowing his thoughts were the same as hers. "All along... Danny and Phantom..." She shook her head, practically shouting her next words out of the confusion she felt. "But how? Danny's not dead, he can't be..."

She wasn't certain of her words, though.

"Maddie, I don't like to think about it either, but that accident..." Jack shook his head. "He was so shaken up after it, and freezing cold." Maddie remembered this. They had wanted to take him to the hospital, but he refused to go, his eyes going wide in a panic. "He's never even really warmed up all that much after that, either." Her husband was right about that too-Danny was still colder than any other human she had ever met.

"He's never wanted to go to the hospital after that..." She whispered, her eyes downcast. "Not even to the doctor's for a check-up. And the nurse says he won't let her take his temperature, either." She looked up. "But he doesn't look like he's dead..."

"Some ghosts can take on a human appearance, remember?" Jack frowned. "All this time..." He shook his head. "So that's why all of the ghost hunting equipment goes off around him. I _knew _I should have tested it one someone else to see if they were really malfunctioning."

"Oh god... oh god, my poor baby..." Maddie's breath came out slowly now. "All this time... he must have been so frightened. No wonder he wouldn't tell us anything. Oh Jack... what do we do?"

"I'm not sure Maddie, but the one thing I do know is that right now we have to find him. Right now, I think he needs us."


	7. Advances

**AN: **Chapter Seven! Huzzah! This chapter... wow, it took a different path than I had expected it too. I kind of like how it turned out anyways though. It was insanely easy for me to write this one. And also, I'm back in school now, so updates might come more slowly, but I hope to at least update one of my stories once every week.

Danny Phantom doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Butch Hartman. Now excuse me while I go do my Latin homework at 10: 50 at night.

Black and White

Chapter Seven: Advances

The streets of Amity Park were quiet. Few people were out on them, and those who were refused to walk anywhere in the winter cold, opting to ride in their cars. The few people who did drive along the roads glanced curiously over at the black-haired teenager walking alone in the snow, seemingly immune to the winter chill, his head hung low. But they only spared a moment's glance, before they tore their eyes away, once again focusing on the icy road ahead. They had other things to think about, and none of them involved a depressed brunette.

Snow silently fell around him, his steps cracking the ice on the sidewalk and his slow breathing the only things breaking the silence. He wasn't dressed right for the cold, having no time to grab a jacket before he fled from his home, but it really didn't matter. He was used to being cold. It hardly ever bothered him anymore.

He halted in his tracks, glancing up from underneath his shroud of hair, slowly exhaling a breath that showed itself in the cold. His blue eyes looked around him, knowing where he was without even having to really see it.

Amity Elementary.

It was where he had first met Sam, all those years ago. He was so young then, but he could remember it like it was yesterday. A slight smile appeared on his lips. It had been first grade, and Dash had just started to pick on him and Tucker. And coming to their rescue was a very determined little girl, with unusual violet eyes.

As he thought of that, he sight of the nailmarks on Sam's arms, and the taste of her flesh rose in his mouth again, and he shuddered, wrapping his arms tighter about himself. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to throw up again. And somewhere, in the darkest reaches of his mind, darker still than his other self that plagued his life now, he wanted to die.

The thought scared him, but damned if it didn't make some sense. It would end everything. No more having to worry about his other self, no more worrying about turning evil, and no more worrying about being half-ghost. Everything would end, everything would stop.

But what if it didn't?

To be honest, Danny had never really given what being half-ghost meant when it came to his lifespan. It wasn't that he wasn't curious... it was just that he didn't want to think about it. He knew he could take wounds that other people couldn't, and walk away from them. He knew that he healed fast, though not always cleanly. He knew that everytime he became a ghost, he died.

What _did _all that mean for his lifespan?

He honestly didn't know. It might be extended, it might even be shortened. There was a chance that he might not be able to end it, but he didn't even want to think on that.

It was tempting.

God, but it was tempting.

Everything would be over, and he would never have to suffer anymore. And no one else would have to suffer because of him.

But that wasn't really true, was it? No, people would suffer if he killed himself still. His parents, his friends, his sister... they would all mourn his loss. None of them would truly even understand why he would have done it, known of them except for Sam.

He had seen the fear in her violet eyes as he had slowly came back to himself. The fear, the despair, and the sympathy. The hope, at the same time fading and staying strong.

She knew.

She understood.

And he couldn't be with her.

It was a blessing that his darker self had stayed quiet during all of this. He was most likely asleep. The thought un-nerved Danny. He had all the time he needed to build up his strength, but he... he didn't.

There was another thought that scared him. He seemed to be full of them today.

As much as he tried to push the thought of suicide out of his head, it kept on coming back to haunt him. It would be selfish yes... but it would be certain. And he would never have to see his family and friends tearing themselves apart as he slowly lost his mind. He wouldn't have to see the horror in his parent's eyes when they finally discovered what had become of their son.

He wouldn't have to see the fear in Sam's eyes when he could no longer hold back his other self, when he no longer had any say in the matter of what he did to her.

He was certain that she would never forgive him.

His head snapped into attention as he heard footsteps fall behind him, already whipping his head around as the woman behind him begin to try and confirm his identity. She was an older woman, her steel gray hair tucked neatly into a bun, hazel eyes looking surprised at him. "Danny Fenton?" She asked, her old voice cracking slightly.

"So it is you!" She smiled, without waiting for an answer. She was well bundled against a cold, holding a bag that appeared to be filled with party supplies in her arm.

Danny blinked a few times, trying to place a name with a face. "Mrs. Hess?" He asked, and the elderly woman smiled wider.

"Ah, Danny, it's been ages since I saw you last. Aren't you freezing out here without a jacket?" She shook her head, shifting the burden in her arms and taking him by the hand. "Come in, help an old woman with the declarations for a little party."

Danny opened his mouth to protest, but shut it, letting himself be led inside. Mrs. Hess had been his teacher during first grade, the same year he had met Sam. She had watched the two youngster's friendship with an indulging eye, perhaps one of the first to start speculating in what direction their relationship might go. Of course, he hadn't realized it then. Back then, his mind wasn't even slightly concerned with the female gender, or at least not to the extent that he would ever think that he would someday like one.

He followed behind the elderly woman, slowing his walk so that it matched her slower pace, until she had lead him into her empty classroom. It was just the same as he remembered it, though there were a few slight changes here and there.

He found the edges of his lips curling in a smile, recalling the things that had happened here. He could see them like ghosts in the room-there, that was where he had first met Sam. And there, that was where Tucker had thrown up after he followed through on his dare to eat the roach crawling through the room. And over there, that was where he had taken the dare from Dash to kiss Sam. They both had thought it was disgusting then, but now he found himself laughing at it. They had had no idea back then...

A slight chuckle broke him from his memories. "You had good times here, didn't you?" His old teacher asked. She had set down her bag and removed her scarf and heavy coat, and was pulling out several bags of candy from her desk. "Be a dear and get those colored baggies over there, will you?" She asked, pointing to a box across the room.

Danny nodded and got it, bringing it over to her. She smiled at him once more and opened it up, revealing tiny colored bags within. "Sit, sit." She motioned to a chair across from hers at the desk, and Danny sat as she did. "Help me sort these. Each bag should have one of each."

There was silence then, broken only by the sound of sorting candy. After what seemed like an eternity, Danny spoke. "I... there's a reason I'm not in school right now..."

"Oh, I know that dear." She shook her head, smiling at him. "You were always a good boy, Danny, and I imagine that hasn't changed." She tilted her head slightly, her eyes looking knowingly at him. "Something is wrong, isn't it? You can tell your old teacher about it."

He looked down, his eyes vanishing underneath a shroud of raven-colored hair. He opened his mouth once, trying to say that it was okay, and that it would be nothing for her to worry about... but he stopped himself, his mouth shutting. He let out a quiet sigh, looking back up at her. "I hurt someone..." He confessed. "...I hurt someone that I really cared for."

The elderly woman nodded, gazing at him sympathetically. She stopped sorting for a moment, a wrinkled hand reaching out and rubbing the boy's hair a bit, smiling warmly at him. "You didn't mean to, did you?" She asked, but it was more of a statement.

"I didn't, but..." Danny began, but she cut him off, shaking her head and bringing her hand back down.

"Shush, child. Listen to this old woman for once." She placed a hand over Danny's, halting it's sorting motion. Danny looked at her, though his eyes didn't met with hers. "People always end up hurting the ones they love, whether they mean to or not." Her grip on his hand tightened. "And don't you ever go thinking that going away earlier than you should is a good idea."

She stopped him again, seeing that he was going to say something. "Now, I get the feeling that this situation you're in is a complicated one. But in the end, it all comes down to the fact that if she loves you, she'll forgive you." She smiled at him then. "And if I remember Sam Manson correctly, I believe she will."

Danny blinked then, looking her in the eyes, stunned. "How?" He shook his head, seeing the knowing, indulgent look that he remembered she wore whenever she looked at them all those years ago. "Nevermind..."

She patted his hand, going back to her sorting. "Now I think you have some people you need to talk to, don't you?" She looked at him. "Go on and see them. I'll be fine here."

Danny blinked a few times, but when the woman looked down, she knew that it was his cue to leave. He got up. "...Thank you..." He mummered before he turned to leave, getting about halfway to the door before he turned back around, his mouth open to say something else.

And it snapped shut as he noticed that she had vanished. His mind raced backwards. Just before she had come, he had seen his breath. But it was cold out, and there was hardly anything strange about that. As he stood there staring at the empty desk, his blue eyes wide, he still couldn't help but feel slightly relaxed inside.

He had spent so long thinking that all ghosts were his enemies, that he had never stopped for a second to realize that there had to be some watching out for him. A bit of sadness was there as well, the fact that his old teacher was a ghost meant that she was dead. But... she was right. Sam would forgive him.

The thought of killing himself seemed stupid now.

He wasn't sure why. She had barely even brushed over the subject.

But she had come to see him, taking a pause from her eternal sleep to help comfort an old student. She had seen him worth it, and she believed that he was worth saving. He smiled slightly, taking one last long look at the classroom before he left it, heading back outside. As he left the gates, he stopped, and turned around. He had a feeling that he knew who would be there.

His parents faced him, both of them clad in their winter jackets. For several minutes, none of them did anything. Nobody spoke, nobody moved, they all simply just looked at each other.

It was his mother who broke the trance, stepping up to her son and extending him his jacket, managing a small smile. "You forgot this." She said, as if there was no other reason that she and his father had come to find him.

Danny took it, but he didn't put it on, wrapping it around one arm. "I don't really need it..." He mummered, his voice barely louder than a whisper, but good enough for his parents to hear in the winter silence. He knew they knew by now. He knew they knew who else he was. Phantom, as well as their son.

"Danny..." His mother sighed, her eyes dropping downwards, staring at the ground. "I... we..." She sighed again, looking back up at him. "We're so sorry... We never noticed what had happened to you..." She looked as if she wanted to say more, but she couldn't get the words out.

Jack finished for her. "We failed in one of our duties as parents, and that was to tell when something was wrong with one of our children... And we're sorry, Danny. We truly are."

When his father was serious, Danny knew they meant it.

He shook his head, closing his eyes. "Mom... dad..." He began, and the two looked at him. "No... the fact that you didn't know..." He opened his eyes, allowing them to glow green instead of his normal blue. "It wasn't because you failed as parents, it was because I didn't want you to know... I was an idiot for that."

"Danny, honey, you weren't an idiot for not telling us." His mother spoke up, taking his hand in hers. "We weren't very understanding, were we? You had a right to be frightened, honey, you really did..." She looked up at him, her eyes meeting with his. She reached up, her fingers tracing the outlines of his eyes. Now that she looked at them closely, she could see the familiarity that she had missed in them all this time, and she cursed herself internally for it.

"She's right." His father nodded, stepping up to join his mother. "Danny, we're your parents, and we love you no matter what. Whether you're among the living or among the dead."

"And you really have been trying hard to protect everyone, haven't you sweetie?" His mother asked, giving Danny no chance to correct his father. She dropped her hands from his face. "You've been trying so hard, and all you've gotten from it as a reward is a lot of unjust hate, from your father and I included. And you deserve so much better than that."

Danny stopped them before they could go on anymore. "Mom, dad..." He smiled slightly at them. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate your acceptance, but you haven't gotten the whole story yet."

His parents exchanged curious looks with each other, but said nothing, allowing him to talk.

"That accident with the portal..." He began, tucking his hands in his pockets, for now having nothing to do with them. "It didn't kill me, and I know that must be what you think it did." He half smiled at them then, seeing their confused faces. "It... I don't know exactly what it did. It only half-killed me, I guess. I'm not fully dead, but I'm not entirely alive either. I'm only half-ghost."

"Half-ghost..." His mother echoed, frowning deeply. "Danny, how on earth is that even possible? All of our evidence shows that such a thing is logically impossible." She exchanged a look with her husband, who nodded, confirming her statement.

Danny shook his head. "Like I said, I don't know how it works, but it's what I am. I still have to eat, sleep, and breathe, and my heart still beats. But at the same time when I become..." he hesitated over the words slightly. "...Phantom, all of that no longer is necessary. I die every time I transform."

His parents once more exchanged quizzical looks, before they looked back at their son. "Well, Danny, that still doesn't change the fact that we accept you for what you are. Half-ghost or ghost, you're still our son." His father said, before sweeping his son up into a giant bear hug.

Danny's eyes widened as he did so, the large man lifting him off his feet. He definitely hadn't seen that coming. "D-dad... h-human now... Need... to breathe..." He gasped out, feeling the life drain from him, and not in the way he was used to it doing.

"Oh right!" His father let him go, putting him down, a wide grin on his face. That was more like the Jack Fenton he saw every day. "Sorry about that Danny, I just get so emotional during these times!"

"Could your emotions be a little less life-threatening?" Danny lightheartedly teased, smiling at his father. Ahhh, but that hug reminded him that he still had some wounds healing. But he couldn't let them no that, could he? Everything seemed to be going well now, and he didn't want to risk losing that. He didn't want them questioning him about how exactly he had gotten wounded this time.

His mother smiled at the two, shaking her head. There were still more questions that needed to be asked, but not out here. "Danny, come on. Let's get you home. Half-ghost or not, you'll still catch a cold if you stay out here for too long." She smiled as she saw her son nod, before she turned around, hearing her husband's heavy footsteps follow behind her, expecting to hear nothing other than the sound of feet shuffling through snow for awhile.

But that didn't happen, and the sound was broken before it even had gotten started. Her son's voice spoke up, but she could barely even recognize it as his voice. It seemed to be dripping with venom, the vocal tone seeming amused and dangerous.

"You'll believe anything, won't you?"

Maddie and Jack turned around, staring wide-eyed back at a horrified looking Danny, his blue eyes wide, his hands clamped over his mouth. Faint traces of blood red were fading from his eyes, and they could almost see the knot of fear in his stomach that had been loosened, tighten again.

"They really will, won't they, punk?"

Maddie and Jack whipped around again, Danny's eyes more slowly looking at the owner of the voice, the knot of fear growing tighter. He knew who it was without even having to look. And he knew that now things had gotten much, much worse.

It was Walker.


	8. Retreats

**AN: **Chapter Eight. This chapter is delicious. Or at least it is to me. Seriously folks, I was sitting her grinning like an idiot while I was writing this. Just opened the file to put down a few sentences and BAM! I guess the cure to writer's block is writing until you find something that clicks. I guess I have so many stories, that I can always find something to jump to. Nifty! xD (Just watch my writing skill vanish for saying that. Just watch it.)

Danny Phantom is Butch Hartman's, not mine. As always, read and review! (Strikes a pose) And now I'm off to bed!

* * *

Black and White

Chapter Eight: Retreats

"Walker!?" Danny spat out, staring wide-eyed at the ghost warden, who was floating just a few feet above them, his white-clad form noticeable even in the falling snow. The hybrid swore under his breath, his eyes narrowing. He had thought for sure that he had been able to keep Walker in the Ghost Zone the last time he had put him away. As he thought about the battle, his mostly healed wound on his stomach sent a fresh wave of ghost pain through him. Shit... today was really trying not to be his day, wasn't it?

The ghost warden stared down at him, stone-faced. From the background, Danny could see that his guards were starting to appear behind him, and swore under his breath once more. The last thing he felt he needed right now was a massive ghost fight, especially if it involved Walker.

Walker, to his great annoyance, was one of the first ghosts that had learned of Danny's current... condition. And he wanted to exploit it. The ghost warden's goal in his afterlife did, after all, seem to be to make him suffer, and pay him back for letting all the prisoners in his jail escape. It was he who had framed him for the earliest ghost invasion of the town, and he who framed him for attacking the mayor. There was plenty of bad blood between the two.

"Who else, punk?" The ghost warden sneered, a cold sense of amusement in his voice.

"Danny..." Maddie whispered faintly, coming up behind her son, her eyes cast suspiciously on the ghost warden. It was clear that she was on her guard, itching for one of her weapons-but alas, she hadn't thought to bring any, not with what they were trying to find Danny for... She prayed that with any luck, Jack had decided to take on with him. "Who is that?"

"Walker." The ghost hybrid replied, his voice cold, not removing his eye's from the white-clad warden for a second. "The warden of the Ghost Zone jail. And he wants me in his prison."

Or he did. Lately there had been a large shift in Walker's tactics, and Danny began to worry that there was some way that he might know about his other self... but how would that even be possible? He was sure that no one besides he and Sam knew about him.

Then again... Danny had no idea what this other half did when he managed to take over his body at night. And that thought unnerved him terribly.

"I'll give you a choice one last time. Are you going to come peacefully, or do I have to force you?" The ghost warden asked, poised to snap his fingers to give his guards the signal to attack at any time.

"You know I'm never going to go with you." The hybrid answered, his eyes narrowed, blazing green in anger. This guy just never knew when to quit.

"Very well then." The ghost warden snapped his fingers. "Just remember that when you're rotting in jail because of an extra-long sentence, that I gave you a choice."

"I'll make a note of it." The raven-haired boy mummered before the rings appeared around his waist, changing him from human to ghost once more. Upon his transformation, Walker's guards rushed him, and Phantom quickly sprung into the air, easily avoiding their attack. If there was one good thing about Walker's goons-it was that they weren't exactly brilliant strategists.

The ghosts that held back in the initial lunge now rushed him, as the ones from the ground shot at him with their weapons, the chains of ecto-energy trying to clasp around them. Phantom managed to avoid them, landing on the school wall just below him. Skillfully dodging the last of the blasts with a turn, he raised his hand as he turned around and released a blast of ecto-energy at the closest ghost to him, sending him hurtling back.

Remembering them, Phantom glanced back towards his parents-both looked ready to fight, but it didn't take him long to realize that both of them were unarmed. Cursing lightly under his breath he called to them. "Get out of here! I can handle Walker and his goons!" Which, as he said that, he dodged another round of blasts, sending out another one of his own, hitting the targeted ghost head on.

"Da-" Maddie was about to call her son by his real name, but quickly realized what a mistake that might be- if anyone was around to hear it, it could spell even more trouble for their son. And Maddie got the feeling that there was some part of the story that he wasn't telling them. Of course, this was no time to worry about that-the fact that he was under attack by numerous ghosts at once worried her enough.

"Phantom!" She called out again, having corrected herself. "You know we can't leave you alone!"

"Yeah, but..." He had to stop, avoiding another barrage of blasts, as well as a few lunging ghosts. Taking to the air again, he hurled down another blast, this time sending the hit ghost hurling into the one behind him. At the same time as this double hit, however, the two previous ghosts that had fallen had gotten back up, and Phantom cursed under his breath, hating the fact that he hadn't thought to use the Fenton Thermos on them then, that was dangling from the holster on his waist.

"You two can't even do anything! You're unarmed!" He got out, after ducking underneath another blast, rather distractedly, inwardly wincing as it nicked his hair, sending a few stray white strands floating in the chill air.

Maddie bit her lip, looking back and forth between her son, the ghosts attacking him, the one named Walker, her husband, then back at her son again. She had no time to think how strange it was that she now considered the one she had hunted for so long-even now, even though she knew the truth, her ingrained instincts made her want to hunt the boy, her own flesh and blood. It was surreal, but she would have to put off dealing with that feeling later. Glancing back at her husband, she knew that he was feeling the same way.

"Maddie, if we hurry home, we can get some weapons and rush back to help him. It isn't that far from here, just a few blocks." Jack spoke, his eyes fixed on the battle. He visibly winced as one of the chain shots came just a bit too close to the white-haired ghost boy. Thankfully, they didn't clamp on, merely living a small cut from which a bit of ectoplasm trickled.

Maddie looked back at the battle, and nodded. Without a word, not wanting to distract her son, she turned around, heading off in a dead sprint. Jack followed behind her, running as quickly as a man of his girth possibly could. She didn't like the idea of leaving her son alone-but Jack was right. This was their best option-they couldn't help him if they didn't have any weapons.

Phantom let out a brief sigh of relief as he saw them leaving, but had to cut his moment of silent rejoicing short as he dodged an attacking ghost. He pulled out the thermos this time, popping it open with one hand as he used his other to blast the ghost. The thermos open now, he quickly sucked it up, then spun around, doing likewise to another one that was trying to get at his rear.

The fact that he hadn't seen Walker for a few minutes disturbed him, but these ghosts weren't giving him much time to even think about it. The chain of attacks, dodging, and close calls continued, a few more cuts appearing on the white-haired boy as he continued to trap Walker's ghost guards into the thermos, as well as a few grazing blasts that he just knew would leave some nasty-looking bruises.

How the hell many guards had Walker sent after him anyways? It seemed like the number was endless as he continued to do battle. He was grateful at least that his darker side had fallen silent- which wasn't surprising considering that in the long run, however much they didn't like it, the two seemed stuck together. If Danny were to get hurt, then his dark side would suffer because of it as well. So both had his body's self-preservation in mind.

After sucking what seemed to be the twentieth ghost into the thermos, Phantom spun around, expecting to find another guard waiting for him... but found the streets were now empty. Looking around a second time to make sure, he let out a sigh of relief, floating back down to pick up the thermos cap where it had fallen, securing it on the ghost catcher.

He had a strange nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right, but he just couldn't seem to place his finger on what it was, and so he pushed it aside.

"Danny!"

The white-haired ghost looked up at the shouts, seeing his now-armed parents running down the street. Both he and them seemed to wince at the fact that Jack had called their hybrid son by his real name, silent prayers that no one was around to hear it going through all three of their heads.

His parents soon joined him, Jack panting a bit as he lowered the heavy Fenton Bazooka down by his side. Maddie looked about the empty streets. "They're all gone?"

Phantom nodded, smiling and brushing some stray white hair out of his face. "Yeah. I got the last of them. Hopefully we won't be hearing from Walker for..."

He stopped there, his green eyes widening in slight panic.

Walker.

He had forgotten about Walker.

He barely had time to fully register the thought before he felt the full weight of his mistake hit him-quite literarily too. Before he knew it, he found his body crashing into the wall behind him, his head hitting the brick wall hard. He grunted, feeling the cold of ectoplasm trickling down the back of his head.

The ghost warden stood in front of him, a smug grin on his face. He heard his parents shout, heard the sounds of the Fenton Bazooka charging... and then he saw and heard no more.

He blacked out.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the moment of the commotion, the last member of the immediate Fenton family was boarding an airplane. Twenty year old Jasmine Fenton straightened out her aqua headband, smoothing down her hair as she handed her ticket to the flight attendant. She had been extremely lucky, she thought. She had managed to get the last seat on the only available flight to Amity Park this week.

She had practically broken the sound barrier in getting here, driving her car as fast as legally possible as she headed towards the airport. The powers that be seemed to favor her, for traffic was minimal, and she made it to the airport in no time flat. The fact that it was a weekday helped as well, cutting down on the human traffic that came through the airport.

She let out a sigh of relief as she took her seat on the airplane, buckling herself in. Within an hour, she would be home. Within an hour, she would be home, and she would be with her younger brother, who, if she knew anything about him (and she did), needed her desperately right now. The feeling had strangely strengthened just a few minutes ago, and Jazz could only imagine what it was that might cause such a deepening sense of urgency.

For some reason, she almost felt like the point of no return was approaching. And knowing what she knew... she knew that couldn't be good.

Her brother had never told her about it. Sometimes it seemed that he was going to, but he had always seemed to change his mind at the last minute, walking away with a smile that couldn't hide the fear he was feeling. There was shame in it too, and so much pain that it had nearly made her heart bleed to look at it.

She knew, though.

She had always known what her brother had become, what the accident with the Ghost Portal had _really _done to him. His parents had thought that it had done nothing more than give him a nasty shock, nothing more than lower his normal body temperature. She had known it had done something more-she could see it in his eyes, though for a long few months she couldn't place what it was that had changed her brother so much... what it was that was filling him so full of emotions that one would not normally find in a boy of his age.

Which was why she had considered Penelope Spectra's arrival both a blessing and a curse. A curse, obviously because she had dealt so much damage to her little brother... but a blessing in disguise as well. Without her, she might have never known that her brother was no longer fully human.

Half ghost. A hybrid. A halfa.

Her younger brother, the boy who she would always remember as being frightened of the old witch upon his first viewing of Snow White, was none other than Phantom.

Strangely, Jazz didn't find that hard to accept. Danny on the other hand... he had always been agonizing about it. He had still been when she had left for college. She wished that the local college had a good psychology program-if it had she would have more than gladly stayed there. But she found no other option, and she had to go out of state to get to a good college with the program that she wanted. She hated leaving him alone.

She had always been his wall of support, ever since they were little, since long before she had become interested in becoming a psychologist. There were times when she knew he wished that she would just leave him alone, but she knew that deep down, he was always appreciative of her.

And so she had almost felt like a traitor at having to leave him. She called him every week, but the phone was a poor replacement for an actual person to person chat. Things were so much more reassuring, and much more effective if you could actually see the person that you were talking to, if you could actually touch them, if they could actually hold you.

She had always sworn that she would drop everything if her brother needed her.

And he did now. _He _had called _her_. He almost never did that. And if his shaking voice was any indication, he desperately needed her. Desperately.

The firey red-haired woman let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding as she felt the plane start to move down the runway.

Just an hour now.

It would only be an hour.

So why did she have this unshakeable feeling that it was almost too late?

* * *

Maddie sighed, rubbing one of her shoulders in an attempt to relieve some of the built-up tension in it, as she sat in the chair across from the couch. After Danny had collapsed, Jack had sent Walker back to the Ghost Zone, by use of the Fenton Bazooka. And hopefully, that was where he would stay, for awhile at least.

Their son had changed back, his white hair replaced by his natural black. Maddie had panicked originally, especially after she felt the blood seeping from his head wound. She had to force herself to remind herself that head wounds bleed a lot, at time regardless of how much damage was done. Thankfully, besides knocking him out, it didn't seem to do all that much damage.

Jack had picked up Danny, handing the Fenton Bazooka to Maddie. They had gone back to the house, and Jack had laid Danny on the couch. They had briefly considered taking him to the hospital-but decided not to. Knowing the reason now that Danny had avoided going to one for so long, they couldn't betray that while he was unconscious.

She could only imagine how awkward the next few weeks would be though. Now that they knew his secret, she couldn't help but think that things were going to change around here. As much as she wanted to, she didn't think she would be able to look at her son quite the same way anymore.

He was half-ghost. Not to mention that he was quite the powerful one. To be able to take out so many ghosts so quickly... that was a feat in and of itself. He had even defeated Phariah Dark-though, granted, he did have the help of the Ecxo-Skeleton. But that had been back when he was fourteen, and it was quite obvious that his power had only grown since then, with several new abilities appearing over the years. And ghostly wails, and the power to freeze wasn't exactly anything to sneeze at.

But he was still her son-that wouldn't change, she thought as she looked over at his sleeping form with a smile. She blinked, seeing that he was stirring now, a faint moan escaping from his lips. She quickly got up, rushing over to him and peering down at him. He stopped moving and she sighed, disappointed. She had hoped that he would have woken up, but at least he didn't seem to be out cold anymore-only sleeping.

"Danny..." She gave him a soft smile, brushing some of his black hair out of his eyes. "You always were on to get yourself in so much trouble." She sighed, leaning down to kiss his forehead. "I love you, though."

He stirred again and Maddie smiled, placing her hand on his shoulder. His eyes twitched, though they remained shut, and Maddie's heart rose in relief, thinking that he might be waking up. She let go of his shoulder, straightening up and stepping back so that he could have some space-she didn't want to crowd him.

Just as she predicted, the boy woke up, his eyes obscured by his hair, which had fallen back into his face. He pulled himself up, strangely silent, placing a hand on his forehead. It was quiet for a moment, and... somehow odd.

Something felt wrong.

"Hmph." His hand not moving from where he had placed it, her son gave a slight laugh, sounding incredibly amused.

"Danny...?" Maddie ventured quietly, her heart pounding in her chest. Why were warning bells going off in her ears? Her son was waking up, shouldn't she be happier?

The hand dropped from his forehead, the raven-haired boy's eyes closed. He stood up, shoving his hands inside of his pockets... and laughed again. He took a step forward to her, at the same time opening his eyes. Blood red stared into hers, serpentine slits dividing them instead of normal pupils.

"Hello, mother."

What happened afterwards was like a train wreak.


	9. The Beginning of a Train Wreck

**AN: **So, for those of you who keep up with Shadow of the Reaper, you probably know that I'm back after a combination of school related delays and a rather nasty writer's block. I apologize for the time you've been waiting, and I figure I better make good use of this writing mojo while I still have it. So, I present, after several months, the next chapter of Black and White!

As always, Danny Phantom belong to Butch Hartman. Please read and review!

* * *

Black and White

Chapter Nine: The Beginning of a Train Wreck

"Hello, mother."

Maddie stumbled back a step, out of pure shock. "Danny?!" She spat out in disbelief, unable to drop her gaze from the petrifying sight of his eyes, the color of blood in the darkness. His voice shook her, and it didn't take her all that long before she realized that she had heard it once before, only about half an hour ago, in fact.

_You really will believe anything, won't you?_

"You can't be Danny!" She hissed, her determination suddenly rebuilding itself. No way that this could be her son. He would never speak to her in that voice, or even hold himself in the way he was doing currently.

Of course, she had used to think that there was no way that Phantom could really be her son either.

And she had been wrong about that, hadn't she?

The raven-haired boy laughed, amused. It showed on his face, a smirk appearing on it. "Mother... I'm hurt." He laughed, crossing his arms in front of him, those chilling, blood colored eyes locked back on her face. "I _am _your son."

A chill ran down Maddie's spine at the sound of his laugh, and though she tried to keep him from seeing it, she failed miserably. Even worse, she couldn't help as a second one ran down her spine as his smirk grew, his eyes glittering in amusement. The warning bells continued to go off in her head, but she found that she was paralyzed, caught between disbelief and denial.

"Hn." The other Danny watched her carefully, his head tilting to the side as he saw that she was completely frozen in her tracks. Now that she wasn't saying anything, he found that she wasn't interesting anymore. He gave a bored yawn, looking at her with disinterest now. "Of come on now, mother, be a little more responsive than that, won't you? You're boring me."

His taunt seemed to snap the ghost huntresses back into reality, though she wished that this wasn't, and her violet eyes narrowed. "You can't be Danny." She stated firmly as she could this time, but she knew from the reappearing smirk on his face that there was still doubt shining through her words.

"You don't honestly believe that do you?" He asked, laughing slightly at her as he did. He leaned closer to her until their noses almost touched, his amused eyes staring into her narrowed ones. Maddie felt a spear go through her heart as the eyes shifted in color, resuming their normal light blue, but the expression on his face remained the same. It showed on her face, she knew it.

"You're pathetic." He whispered, before he stood up, leaving a stunned Maddie unable to move as he left their home.

The door shutting behind him snapped the woman back to her senses, and she let out a breath that she hadn't even realized that she had been holding. All at once, movement returned to her, in the form of violent shivering. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she watched the closed door in horror.

That was Danny... she wanted to deny it, but that really had been her son. Oh god... she suddenly realized the reasons behind his more recent strange behavior. Talking to himself should have been a dead giveaway, not to mention that his sudden paranoia had returned, as well as the fact that he was beginning to have mood swings.

It made her heart clench up in her chest just thinking about it. How had she not noticed this? That Danny... she closed her eyes, falling down against the couch, her trembling knees too weak to hold her. Her husband entered then, looking baffled at the sound of the closing door, and grew only more confused when he saw his wife sitting upon the couch, looking like she had just been through the most traumatic event in her life. And their son gone.

"Maddie?" He asked worriedly, quickly putting down the tray which held hot, piping soup. He sat down on the couch next to her, putting on large hand on her shoulder. "Maddie, what's wrong? Where's Danny...?" He was almost afraid to ask.

"Danny..." Her voice was quite, and she gazed back towards the door. "Oh God, Jack, Danny!" She clung to him, the large man pulling his wife closer to him. "Jack, Danny... he... something's _wrong _with him."

"Maddie, what?" Jack asked slowly, his worry growing. "What's wrong with him?"

"God Jack..." She let out another sob, shaking her head. Her mouth groped to form the words, as if saying them out loud would back what might otherwise just be an awful nightmare come true. "...I think he's developed... another personality." Her hands tightened on his shoulders. "And... he's not _good_."

* * *

Jazz shifted uncomfortably in her seat, staring out the window. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest that she could swear even the pilot could hear it. They were over Amity Park now, just beginning their final descent into the city, about to land.

The closer and closer they had gotten to the city, the worse and worse her feeling of dread had become. She couldn't explain it-she just knew something had happened. Something bad.

No wonder then, that she was the first person off of the plane. Quickly grabbing her messenger bag, and grateful that she had splurged on an open first class seat, she almost dashed out of the terminal, ignoring the strange looks that the other passengers gave her.

She hurried down the escalator, carefully weaving her way through the people waiting in the baggage line. She was glad she had thought to only pack a few necessary clothes and items in her carry-on, she really felt that she didn't have the time to wait for any bags. The sense of urgency had overtaken her now, driving her forward as she hurried out of the airport.

"Where is a taxi when you need one?" Jazz looked around, sighing in relief as she finally spotted one. She carefully made her way to the yellow vehicle, sliding into it. "Fenton Works, please. And hurry."

She just prayed that she wasn't too late.

Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as the taxi drove out of the airport, heading towards the city. She half wanted to tell the driver to speed up, but she contained the urge. She knew she should have never left Amity Park in the first place, leaving Danny alone like he was.

She let out a little sigh, shaking her head a bit. No, she had already thought through going to an out of state college for a long time. By the time she had finally decided that it was okay for her to apply, she only had three days before the deadline would pass. Even after applying, even after moving away, she still had regrets about leaving her brother behind. But she knew he was a strong person and she was certain that he'd be allright. Or at least, that he would talk to someone about it eventually. He couldn't have possibly planned on keeping it a secret forever, could he?

Then again, he could have. She had hoped that he would tell Tucker or Sam about it, at least. They were such close friends, she thought it would only make sense that he couldn't keep his secret from them forever. Chewing on her lip a little, she pulled out her cell phone and pulled up Sam's number. She hesitated a bit before she pressed the call button, wondering if she should really be doing this.

The phone rang about three times before Sam finally picked it up, frowning as Jazz's number flashed on the screen. "Hello? Jazz?" She asked, sounding slightly confused. What could Danny's sister possibly need her for? They hadn't exactly been close before she went away to college, so she had no idea why she was calling her now.

She hoped it didn't have to do anything with Danny, though. Her heart started to pound a little at that thought, hoping that he was allright.

"Sam. I'm glad that I caught you." Jazz's voice came over the phone, the older woman sounding relieved. "I have to talk to you about something. It's important. It's about Danny."

Sam's heart could have stopped right there. "A-about Danny?" She stammered, biting on her lip hard enough to draw blood. Did Jazz know? Or did something else happen to Danny since this morning? "Y-yeah. Of course we can talk."

Jazz knew from Sam's tone that she knew what was going on, her stammering confirming her fear that something had gone very wrong. "Meet me in the park, soon, please." She told her.

Sam nodded, then remembered that Jazz couldn't see her. "Right. I'll meet you there." She told her, before hanging up. She grabbed her jacket and pulled on her boots, hurrying out from her room. She rushed past her parents, not stopping to tell them where she was going. What was going on? She hoped nothing was wrong with Danny.

Jazz hung up her cell phone, and turned towards the driver, telling him that she had a change of plans, and to head towards the park instead. She instructed him to and he changed directions, turning around and heading in the opposite direction from her home.

_Just wait for me a little longer, Danny. I'll be there soon, I promise._

* * *

Sam nearly tripped down the stairs leading to the street, because she was hurrying out of the house so fast. Jazz was back in town? What could she possibly be here for? They way she spoke over the phone made her extremely nervous. She hadn't heard anything from Danny since earlier that morning, when her parents had found him with her in her bedroom. Had he already gotten himself into some kind of trouble?

She looked down at her wrist, almost surprised to see that it was now seven o'clock in the evening. The day seemed to zip by fast. Distracted, she almost didn't see the car coming across the street until it had just about hit her. She turned to face it, her eyes going wide and her body was frozen like a dear caught in headlights. Her mouth went open, letting out a silent scream, before a cold hand grabbed her arm and yanked her backwards, out of harm's way.

Sam shut her eyes as she was yanked away, not opening them again until a small impact jarred them open. It felt like she had just landed on someone, and to her horror, she discovered that she was now sitting on someone's face. She turned a bright shade of red, jumping off of her savior, barely hearing the man in the car cursing her out as he drove off.

"I'm sorry!" She apologized, too flustered to even look at the person who had pulled her out of harm's way. She blinked then, catching sight of familiar black hair and azure eyes. "D-Danny? What are you doing here?" She could have sworn that with the way he left, she wouldn't see him again any time soon.

He gave her a sheepish smile, propping himself up with his hands. "Saving your ass, apparently. Since when did you become a damsel in distress?" He asked, teasing her lightly. He chuckled a little as he saw Sam's eye give an involuntarily twitch, and pulled himself to his feet, brushing off his navy blue jeans. He was wearing a white hoodie that was trimmed with black around the hem, hood, and sleeves.

"I was just a little distracted, that's all." She huffed, crossing her arms. She smiled then, looking up at him. "But thank you. I'm glad you came to save me." She tucked her hands into her skirt pockets, tilting her head. "I thought you wouldn't want to see me again for awhile. Not after..." She shook her head. "Not after what happened with Black and my parents."

"Black?" He arched an eyebrow slightly, then realized what she was talking about. "Oh, right." He gave her a small, helpless shrug. "Actually, I was just on my way to find my sister. She called me and told me to meet up with her in the park."

"Oh, really?" Sam blinked, slightly surprised at that. That was funny, Jazz hadn't mentioned that she had called Danny to come as well... "She called me to come too."

"I see." He blinked, then looked around, as if checking for Sam's parents. "Then shall we go together?" He asked, offering his hand out to her. Sam rolled her eyes, but took it, unable to keep a straight face when Danny started acting like an idiot.

"Of course, my prince." She teased him lightly, in response to his earlier jab. It was his turn to laugh then, and he shook his head as the two of them crossed the street. Suddenly Jazz's call didn't seem so urgent anymore, not with Danny standing right beside her, perfectly fine. She'd keep an eye on him though, she didn't exactly relish the idea of him turning Black on her again.

Her worries proved to be for naught, because Black didn't rear his demented head for the entire length of the walk to the park. She could already see Jazz waiting for the two of them. The older girl waved at them, then paused as she spotted Danny, a look of almost confusion crossing over her face. Sam caught it, and wondered what it was about.

She _had _called Danny over here too, right?

Danny's eyes fell on the firey red haired woman and the tiniest of smirks formed on his face, though it vanished almost as soon as it appeared. His azure eyes watched her carefully as he approached hand in hand with Sam, continuing to play the part of his weak and naive counterpart. He was well and fast asleep now, he had made sure of it.

If he was Black, according to Sam, then the other him must be White. They were fitting names, considering how Black seemed to contain everything that was either morally corrupt or just wrong on many, many levels. White was a good person and he had the hero complex to prove it. They were extremely different and yet there was no way to say that they weren't the same person.

He let his hand slide out of Sam's and he tucked them into his pockets as they stopped in front of Jazz. "Hey, big sis." He grinned at her. "Long time no see. Why did you come back to town so suddenly?"

Jazz almost seemed taken aback by the question, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "Well, that's because... you called me here Danny. You sound utterly freaked when you did it, too." She eyed Sam briefly, before she looked back at Danny. "Are you allright?" She asked, reaching up to check his temperature. Her eyes went wide and she sucked in her teeth, almost startled at just how cold he was. "Jesus, Danny, you're freezing!"

Sam's worry suddenly came back to her in a rush as she saw Jazz's look stray to her. Her eyebrows knitted in confusion as she looked over to her long time friend, as if waiting for an answer from him. This was her Danny, right? He wasn't acting like Black and his eyes were their normal color, too. She didn't feel that same uneasiness that came whenever Black showed up, so... what was going on?

He laughed then, grinning widely. "I'm just kidding, Jazz." He stuck out his tongue at her a little, ignoring her comment about his body temperature. "I know that."

Jazz frowned at that, then turned to Sam. "Sam, could you give us a moment?" She asked. The younger girl blinked, then nodded, heading across the way to give them some privacy. Jazz turned back to her brother then and took his hand, once again stunned at just how cold it was, and lead him beside a thicket of trees.

"Okay, so, what's going on, Danny?" She asked him, sounding concerned. "You call me in a panic, and then you show up here acting perfectly fine." She frowned. "How did you know I was here, anyways?"

"Eh." He shrugged off her question, closing his eyes and tilting his head slightly. "So, Jazz, how long have you know that I'm Phantom?"

If she had been taken aback by his earlier question, she was now even more so. "C-come again?" She stammered, wondering if she had heard that right.

"I asked how long you've known that I'm Phantom." He repeated himself, his eyes opening and a small, unnerving grin appearing on his face. "And don't lie to me, sis. I wouldn't like that."

Jazz's heart started to pound uncomfortably in her chest as she realized something was very wrong her. Her eyes drifted up towards his and she noticed with a start that they were now the color of dried blood. She took a step back, his name tumbling from her mouth. "D-Danny? What's going on here?"

"You're a smart girl Jazz." He told her, taking her by the hand. Jazz winced, sucking her teeth as his nails dug into her flesh, drawing blood. "Shouldn't you be able to figure it out?"

"That hurts!" She yelled, a little bit louder than she intended. "Danny, let get go!" She struggled against him, trying to free her arm, but he kept a firm grasp on her, his strength impressive.

Her yell, did, however, manage to attract the attention of Sam, who quickly realized what was going on. She glanced around the park, cursing a little underneath her breath as she realized that no one else was around, then approached the two. "Hey!" She called out, causing Danny's eyes to drift towards her. "Let her go!"

He couldn't help but laugh at that, and he released his sister, taking a step back and tucking his hands into his pockets. "If you insist, Sam." He looked over at her, tilting his head slightly. "I'd much rather make you bleed anyways." He turned his eyes back towards Jazz, who was nursing her wounded arm. "She doesn't squirm well enough."

Jazz's eyes widened, then narrowed at that. This person... she wasn't sure who he was, and why he looked exactly like her brother, but it wasn't him. "Who are you? Where's Danny?" She asked, edging away from him, moving towards Sam. It seemed that she had encountered this man before, she noted.

He laughed then, his eyes flashing with amusement as he lifted his head up and laughed loudly. "You can't figure it out?" He grinned, looking back down at her, his grin turning into a rather malicious smirk. He pointed his hand towards himself. "I _am _your brother, Jazz."

His twisted smirk grew as he saw the expression on her face, and he crossed his arms loosely in front of him, letting twisted black rings of energy envelop his body. His black hair faded into white and his clothes shifted, becoming a black, sleeveless shirt and a pair of black bondage pants with white straps and a variety of zippers all along them. Those eyes remained the same, though black markings appeared around them. The ripple of power that emitted from his body was enough to even be felt by the two girls, and the atmosphere around them suddenly turned threatening and dangerous.

Especially as they realized that at some point, he had erected a shield around the area.

"So, girls," Phantom tilted his head to the side, smirking again. "How do you think I should play with you?"


	10. Pure Black

AN: Well, here it is, Chapter Ten of Black and White! This one is a bit shorter, but I liked where I ended it, so I chose to keep it this way. Sorry for not updating sooner, I was feeling kind of under the weather. Bleh. Oh well! Yesterday was my birthday, I'm 20 now! (I know, right? How old did you guys think I was? I know people in real life think I'm like fourteen. Argh!) As always, please read and review if you have the chance!

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Black and White

Chapter Ten: Pure Black

"So, girls," Phantom tilted his head to the side, smirking again. "How do you think I should play with you?"

Sam's eyes narrowed as Danny's form shifted from his own to that of Phantom's, her heart starting to beat loudly in her chest. She knew she couldn't afford to be afraid of him right now, this Black Phantom, but somewhere in her, she couldn't help it. She was sure if she was more afraid for herself, or for Danny. If the black side was out and about, then where was the Danny she knew?

"What did you do with Danny?" Sam asked, trying to shove aside her own fear. She had helped Jazz to her feet by now, but had never taken her eyes off the crimson eyed Phantom. She did her best to sound as if she was not afraid, but she couldn't keep the edge of it off of her voice.

Sam was, by no means, a coward, but this other side of Danny was like nothing she had ever encountered in her life. As Phantom, Danny had powers that she couldn't even begin to understand, and could do things she could never even dream of. And now, with his black side in control of his ghost form, Sam could only imagine what that would mean for them.

Or rather, she really didn't want to imagine what that would mean. She had a pretty good idea, she just wished that she didn't.

"Hm?" Phantom asked, still smirking at the girls. He seemed to be calm and collected, for now content to watch the two of them. "Oh, him?" He asked, waving a hand. "He's gone to sleep for awhile." He told her. "Got a nasty little bump on the head, wouldn't you know it? Out like a light. I thought I would give his body a spin while he was out. You know. Make sure he doesn't gain weight or something."

"Sam, what's going on?" Jazz asked the younger girl, only half looking at her. She didn't want to take her eyes off of Phantom, or at least, who she thought was Phantom. She knew, she knew that Phantom was Danny, her little brother, and she knew that there was no way that the person who stood before them now could be him.

There was just no way.

She didn't want to believe it, she didn't want to listen to what her logical, rational self was telling her. Jazz couldn't make herself admit that the person who stood before them was indeed, her little brother. Or at the very least, a part of her little brother.

Just one that had gone very, very wrong.

"Hah?" Phantom asked, arching an eyebrow as he looked at Jazz. "Oh come on now, sister." He heaved a sigh, sound irritated. "I thought that you would be smart enough to realize what was happening here without anyone telling you." He frowned, taking a few steps closer to the two girls. He seemed to catch something in his sister's eyes however, that caused him to grin.

"Ah, so it is that you know." He said, reaching over to separate the two, pulling Jazz close to him by the arm. "You just don't want to admit it, that's all, hm?" He asked her, smiling at her now. With that expression, it almost looked like for just a moment that the normal Danny had come back, but there remained something wrong about the expression, as if he was just mocking them.

And really, he was. Right now wasn't like all of the other times when he had been free. He had all the time in the world now. Oh yes, Danny was still in there, he knew, and wasn't going to go anywhere, but thanks to Walker, he'd managed to force him back real well. He would have to remember to thank the ghost by destroying him just a bit faster when his time came.

You know, if he remembered, that is. He did have _such _a terrible memory.

"Let me go!" Jazz spat out, struggling against his grip, but he was stronger than her. She turned away from him then, not wanting to meet his eyes. She felt the faint hints of fear starting to rise up in her chest, but she forced them back down. No, now was not the time to be afraid, she knew that.

She knew Phantom was right, too. She did know what was going on, and now she understood why Danny had called her in such a panic, asking her to come here. This clearly wasn't something you could talk to someone over the phone with. So she needed to gather up all of her courage and stay strong, even in the face of danger.

Even if the face it belonged to was her brother's.

"I said, let me go." She repeated again, but she sounded calmer this time. Phantom frowned at this, and released her. It wasn't all that fun when they tried to be brave, really. He didn't get the rush that he usually did when they were terrified.

"Ah, so you've accepted it then." Phantom grinned then, his frown vanishing as if it had never been there. He took a step back, turning his head towards Sam. The Goth girl hadn't taken her eyes off of him, watching him ever so carefully. She wouldn't fall victim to him again, not if she could help it.

The whole damsel in distress thing really wasn't her style, anyways.

"Let Danny back out." She demanded, taking a cue from Jazz, gathering up her own courage. "Go back to sleep, Black, and let Danny back out where he belongs." She said firmly, glaring at him. She was still afraid, true, she couldn't really make it all go away, but she wouldn't let it get the better of her this time. She knew this black side of Danny loved fear, and so she knew that she just couldn't give it to him.

If she wasn't afraid, he wouldn't be interested.

"Hm." Phantom tilted his head to the side, smirking a little. "Aw, isn't that just precious?" He asked, almost laughing at Sam's demands. "You think you're brave, don't you?" He asked, but Sam did not respond to him. His eyes moved over towards Jazz, and he smiled at them both. "Hm, well, let's just see about that."

Phantom raised up his right arm, green ectoenergy flaring to life around it, forming the start of an ectoblast. He seemed to hold it, however, watching the two girls. Both of them took a step back, on edge, waiting to try and dodge out of the way.

"Here's where the real fun begins, then." He smiled at them again, back to the twisted mockery of Danny's smile. He fired off the ectoblast, but didn't really seem to aim at them, instead, he aimed in the center of them. The two girls were knocked aside by the force of the impact, and Phantom wasted no time in moving, first flying towards Jazz and grabbing her by the neck.

The fiery redhead let out a gasp as she found herself being lifted up and then hurled across the park. She came to a stop, smashing into a nearby tree, the impact of which took her breath away from her. She groaned, supporting herself by the tree, trying to keep herself from collapsing onto the ground. She could feel blood trickle down her cheek, she had hit her head hard. It was like the whole world was spinning.

Phantom turned towards Sam then, still smiling pleasantly at her. The raven haired girl had gotten to her feet, trying to prepare herself for what was to come. She blinked then, finding that Phantom had vanished, and she swore underneath her breath, looking around and trying to find him.

She felt herself being pressed to the ground then, something holding her wrists down. Phantom appeared then, pinning her to the ground, still with that same smile on his face. "Now, where were we, Sam?" He asked, bringing his face close to hers, so that their eyes met. "Before we got interrupted, hm?"

Sam shut her eyes tightly, turning her head away from his. She could feel Phantom's nails digging into her skin, and could feel the pressure of his body on top of hers. There was a flash of light then, and Sam couldn't help but peek. Phantom had resumed Danny's form, but she knew it was still him.

"Oh yes, I remember now." Danny grinned at her, leaning down to kiss her on the lips. She tried to turn her head again, but he forced her to face him, wrenching her head painfully towards him. She could feel his teeth biting into her lip, blood starting to flow from the wound. She felt Danny pull back a bit, licking it up with a grin.

And then the pressure was gone. Sam's eyes snapped open, and she wasted no time getting to her feet. One arm went up on instinct, trying to wipe away the kiss. This wasn't her Danny, it wasn't the Danny she loved. No matter how much he looked like him, she couldn't let herself be fooled. Not again.

Danny swore underneath his breath, glaring up with crimson fury at Jazz. She had gotten back on her feet, and had grabbed the closest thing to a weapon she could find- a large tree branch. He hadn't been expecting that, she had recovered quicker than she thought she would have. He could feel some of his own blood coming from where she had smashed the branch into his head.

"Back off!" Jazz yelled, gripping the branch as tightly as she could. She was glad that it hadn't broke from the force of the impact. Although her vision was still blurry, she knew that she had to do something. She couldn't just sit by and watch this... this other Danny hurt Sam. Not while she could do anything about it.

Danny laughed then, shaking his head as he got to his feet. He clapped as ice blue rings appeared about him, and he resumed his Phantom form. "I'm impressed Jazz. You're bolder than I give you credit for." Ectoplasm now trickled down the side of his head, but he seemed to ignore it. A simple blow like that wasn't much, really.

"Maybe I should have let Spectra kill you when I had the chance." He told her then, smiling. "Save me the trouble of having to do it myself a couple of years down the road."

Jazz felt her heart skip a beat at his words. Spectra? She knew who that was, yes, that was the ghost who had ended up making Danny's true nature known to her. But tried to kill her? She never knew that she even had that in mind. But of course, that all mattered very little compared to the fact that her brother had just told her he was going to kill her.

"Then go ahead and try it, Phantom." She said through gritted teeth, unable to bring herself to use his name. "I'm not just going to bend over for you, even if you are a part of my brother."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, big sister." Phantom tilted his head, smirking at her. "That just makes everything more fun."

So much for getting bored, Sam thought, watching them. She was grateful to Jazz for saving her, and would have to remember to thank her for it if they got out of this alive.

Just then however, a blast from an ectoweapon impacted against the shield. Phantom's eyes narrowed as he glanced in the direction from which it had came, obviously not pleased to be interrupted. Hovering above them in the air was the fourth, and final ghost hunter that lived in Amity Park. Nobody knew who she was, just that she really seemed to have it in for Phantom.

"Oh, it's you." Phantom's smirk twisted into an annoyed frown as his eyes fell upon the masked woman on the hoverboard. She didn't seem to respond to that, and instead fired off another shot at the ectosheild, trying to break it. "Oh come on now. You know that isn't going to work." Phantom heaved a sigh. "You don't nearly have enough firepower."

"Then why don't you come up here and fight me, _ghost_?" The woman hissed, not even making an attempt to mask her hatred. "Or are you so afraid that you can't even work up the guts?"

"Hm." Phantom arched an eyebrow, seeming amused by her threat. As much as he didn't want to let his current prey go, this hunter had be thorn in his side for a long time now. It would be nice to do without her. Glancing over towards Sam and Jazz, he gave them another smile. "Well then, it seems like it's your lucky day." He told them. "You get to live."

Phantom waved a hand, the ectosheild around the area dissolving. The ghost huntress wasted no time in firing off two shoots of him, both of which missed, as he was already in the air, approaching her. He turned invisible, causing annoyance to the hunter as she switched the view on her helmet.

"Valerie Gray." Phantom spoke then, appearing in front of her, hovering in the air. Oh, the rest of Amity Park might not know who this girl was, but he knew. The very reason she hunted ghosts was because of him, really. Well, more thanks to his other half. "I've been meaning to clean up the mess I made with you for a long time. I think I'm going to enjoy this."

"Not as much as I will, ghost." Her eyes narrowed, unsure of how Phantom knew her name. Then again, it was his fault that her life had been ruined. Ever since that day he had appeared at Axion Labs, the ghost had been nothing but a nuisance to her. He had caused her father to lose his job, and not only that, but he had to pay out of his own pocket to fix all of the damages that Phantom had caused to their equipment.

Where they once were rich, now the Gray family couldn't have been deeper in debt. Her social life was shot to hell, too. She had been popular once, but the second she started brown-bagging it and working a part time job, all of her former friends had shunned her.

Valerie wasn't sure where the hunting equipment that she used came from, but frankly, she didn't care. It allowed her to take her revenge on Phantom, something that was a long time coming now. She had never bought his whole hero act, really, and she was always waiting for the day when he would just drop that whole thing.

Today was that day, clearly.

"I knew you'd show your true colors one of these days, ghost." Valerie's eyes narrowed underneath her mask. "Looks like I was right. You are just like all the others."

"Mm, I'm sure that's what you wish." Phantom said, smirking at her. "Now, Miss Gray, how would you prefer to die?" He asked her, sounding rather casual about the whole thing. "Slowly and painfully, or painfully and slowly?"

"I think I choose option three." Valerie told him, firing a shot from her ectopistol. "None of the above."

Phantom's smirk grew at her response. Now this, this would be fun. He raised a shield, deflecting the blast without too much trouble. Valerie had never seen the real extent of his powers, he knew. His other self had always held back when it came to fighting her, not wanting to harm her. The two of them even had a brief fling a couple of years back, although she had no idea that Danny Fenton was actually Phantom.

Valerie's mouth twisted into a frown as she moved to avoid an ectoblast from Phantom. Before she could even blink, the ghost was upon her, and she found herself falling from her board. She swore, but her board managed to find it's missing rider and saved her from falling to her death. She got back to her feet, and none too soon, for Phantom was there again.

This time, she was ready, firing off her ectopistol at him point blank. The ghost was forced back by this, and she fired again and again, not wanting to stop. Oh, he had underestimated her, she thought, watching him fall back. This would be a great day, indeed.

And then she found herself falling again. She turned around in shock, realizing that there were two Phantoms now- there had been the one in front of her, and then there had been the one that had fired an ectoplasmic blast at her at point blank range. It happened so quickly, that it took a moment for the pain to even register, but when it did, she let out a scream of agony.

Her suit protected her from the burnt of the blast, but it still hurt like hell. Sure, she had been hit by ectoplasmic blasts before, but this was nothing like the other ones. Slowly, it dawned on her as she fell, that Phantom had been holding back all of these years. The ground was rushing to greet her now, it seemed, and she saw that Phantom was still hovering in the air, holding her hoverboard now.

And he was smiling.

She had always been convinced that Phantom was truly evil, but that expression made her blood run cold. She'd been hunting him for a long time, but she never had seen anything close to that on his face.

And then she hit the ground, and couldn't think anymore. The last thing she heard was the crunching sound of her own bones breaking.

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AN: Oh yeah, I just went there. Or did I? Only time will tell!


	11. Worst Case Scenario

AN: Um. Wow. For such a terribly depressing chapter, I sure enjoyed writing this one. I wonder what that says about me. Anyways, wow, this chapter has like almost no dialogue. I didn't even notice that until halfway through. As I'm sure you guys can tell, we are coming up to the end here! Shorter chapter, but I think I like it better this way. It wouldn't work quite as well if I did it differently, and I do really like how this ended up.

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Black and White

Chapter Eleven: Worst Case Scenario

It was Valerie.

Nobody in Amity Park ever seemed to know who the mysterious Red Hunter was, as she had never shown her face to anyone. But today, Jazz and Sam learned that it was Valerie Gray. One of Sam's own classmates.

And here she was, hooked up to a life support system, struggling to stay alive.

Though her fall had done severe damage to her body, she had survived it. Her body suit seemed to have helped take some of the force of the impact. She was comatose now, it seemed, and the doctors couldn't say when she would wake up- or even if she would. Her father had been called, and he seemed to be feeling a mixture of anger and despair, the former of which he seemed to be directing towards his daughter's doctors, seeing as there was no other place to let it out in.

Sam and Jazz had never known Valerie very well. They knew she had briefly dated Danny back in the ninth grade, but that it hadn't lasted long. They knew she used to be one of the popular crowd, until her father lost his job and most of their fortune. They knew she worked at the Nasty Burger as a cashier.

They had never really known each other, never had really talked all that much, and yet here they were, watching over her broken body in a hospital room as her father raged at the doctors outside.

After she hit the ground, the two girls didn't know what was going to happen next. Left alone now against the black version of their friend and brother, they both feared for the worst. What he had done to Valerie was confirming the fact that he would indeed show no mercy to the two of them.

Although the whole dating thing hadn't worked out, Valerie and Danny still remained pretty good friends, after all. They would talk and spend time together, just as Danny did with Tucker and Sam.

And yet it was all too easy for the black Danny to do such a thing to her. It wasn't that he didn't know it was Valerie, oh no, he knew. The two girls found that out as he finally managed to come back to himself, facing the full horror of what his other self had done to one of his closest friends, and what he was planning to do to his older sister and the girl that he had come to love.

Unable to face what he had done, he ran. Or flew away, rather, having not resumed his human form. And as much as Jazz and Sam were terribly worried about him, and what he might do now, somebody had to take care of Valerie. And so here they were, in a room with a girl they barely even knew.

Jazz knew she would have to call her parents at one point. They needed to talk, but she didn't even begin to know what she would say to them. She didn't yet know that they knew her brother's secret and had accepted him for it, and she didn't know that they had met his other self as well.

Despite the danger she had just been in, there was nothing more Jazz wanted to do than go and find her little brother. Or rather, her heart wanted to do it. Her mind, her logical, rational mind, screamed at her to stay in place, and rooted her body to the chair she was sitting in. What would she even do if she found him? It asked her. What if he became like that again?

Valerie was alive, but she didn't think she would be so lucky.

Valerie herself wasn't even looking so lucky, if what she could hear from outside the door was true. Her spine had broken in several places, and it was likely that even if she woke up, she would probably be permanently paralyzed. It was a horrifying thought, given that Valerie was a pretty active girl.

Although her father had eventually gotten a new job, they were still in a considerable amount of debt. The weight of medical bills would on complicate Mr. Gray's life, complications which they did not really need. And if his reaction was any kind of indication, Jazz got the feeling that he had known about his daughter's more unique extracurricular activities.

Known, and had clearly disapproved of them.

No doubt, this was one of his worst fears come to life.

Of course, Jazz's own fears had come to life today. Ones that she hadn't even known were there until they were shoved in her face. She had so adamantly denied them that she didn't even seem to recognize they had been there all along.

After all, as the child of two ghost hunters, she had been raised on stories about how ghosts were evil, vile creatures. But she knew her brother, and so when she learned that he had become half-ghost himself, she seemed to be assured of the fact that nothing like that would ever happen to him. Besides, she was well aware of the fact that not all of the ghosts that her brother encountered were really evil, so obviously, her parents must have been wrong.

They were ghost _hunters_ after all.

So she had set the fear aside, before she had even really acknowledged it. Today, however, she was forced to realize that maybe she should have dealt with it.

There was guilt, too, in her heart. She should have never left Amity Park, never gone off to a distant university and left her younger brother alone. She should have confronted him, should have let him know that she knew his secret, and she should have told him that she loved him anyways. Danny was Danny, after all, he was never going to be anybody else.

Right up until he did.

"Sam, I," Jazz began, glancing over at the raven haired girl. She couldn't stay here any longer. Danny had called her here for her help, and he needed it now, more than ever.

Sam didn't look at her, seeming to be lost in her own thoughts. Instead, she raised her hand, as if she knew what she was going to say. "Go on."

Jazz nodded, giving a last look at Sam and Valerie, before she headed out of the hospital room. She went by Mr. Gray, still arguing with the doctors, insisting that there must be _something _they could do, _something _they hadn't tried yet. She hurried out of the hospital and into the chill winter air, set on trying to find her little brother.

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As were her parents.

After recovering from the initial onset of shock caused by Danny's other self, Maddie and Jack had bundled up and headed outside. They could have brought their ghost tracking equipment with them, sure, but something about showing up where their son was carrying all of that stuff might have given off the wrong impression.

They wanted to know what was going on. That had been Danny, they both knew it, but it had not been _their _Danny. Was it a trick, put into play by that other ghost? What had Danny called him, Walker? Or was it something else, something that they really didn't want to even think about it.

But couldn't avoid it.

Oh, there were so many of their son's oddities that they could attribute to being half ghost. But there were other still, that had no explanation. Sneaking out late at night, brief flashes of attitude, talking to himself, seeming almost constantly paranoid even long after he had gotten control of his powers.

There was another Danny.

They both seemed to know that.

But he was not their son.

They had decided on that.

If there were some other Danny, they needed to find a way to get rid of it. Their son had enough stress in their lives, he didn't really need to deal with some kind of malevolent entity living inside his brain, just waiting for when he dropped his guard so that he could take over.

It was quite clear that this other Danny was just that, they could tell it simply from his tone of voice. What words weren't coated with twisted amusement were spoken with a strong flavor of sarcasm, mixed with sadism. He reveled in finally being exposed to them, as if he was anticipating all the suffering it would bring on to his other half.

It was what he wanted, they were smart enough to realize that. That was why they couldn't give him the satisfaction of it.

The sound of sirens filled the air as an ambulance rushed passed them, and the two adult Fentons exchanged a look.

For some reason, it sounded very ominous.

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The arguing outside had finally stopped.

Samantha Manson didn't really register when it had, but slowly came to realize that she was left in a room filled only with the sound of various monitors. Jazz had left some time ago, but she didn't really know how much time had passed since then. Everything was so strange right now, as if she was here, and yet not really here.

Her mind kept replaying the events in the park. She found herself focusing on several things- the kiss, Valerie's fall, and Danny's return to himself. The look of utter horror on his face at what his other self had done was enough to break her heart.

He couldn't even look at them before he fled. For some reason, Sam couldn't shake the sense of dread rising in her, telling her that might be the last time she would ever see Danny. And with that sense of dread came another, wondering exactly how much time her Danny had in this world before he finally disappeared, forever becoming that... that...

_Monster._

She had yet to see the black side of Danny do his worst, and yet she already knew what he was. He was a monster, one from which she couldn't even think of how to save the boy she had come to love from. His claws were dug too tightly into the boy, and were sinking in more as each day passed.

If only she had noticed earlier.

If Danny had a friend who knew his secret, who supported him, would he have ended up this way? Sam had to convince herself that was not the case. If she had confronted him early on about his strange behavior, or if Tucker had done so, things would have been different.

She wouldn't be here, contemplating how long they had left before everything went wrong forever.

Although she was a Goth, she had never been exactly pessimistic by nature. To be sure, she wasn't an optimist, but she did not usually give herself over to despair. She didn't think it was egotistical of herself to admit that she was a strong person, but rather, that it was just a fact. She had always been a pillar of support for her friends to lean on in hard times, and had always been able to help them with their problems.

So why hadn't Danny just come to her? She found herself thinking in frustration. Was he _really _so terrified that she would reject him? That she would think of him as some kind of freak, and that she would stop talking to him? Or worse, let everyone know exactly what he had become? There was no way she would ever do that to him! They had known each other for far too long.

Why hadn't _she _come to _him_? She found herself asking next. She clearly knew that there was something wrong, that something weird was going on with her best friend. She really should have confronted him as soon as she noticed it. What kind of friend _was _she not to try and do something when she knew he was having a problem?

She found herself wondering exactly when everything had started to go wrong. Looking back now, she could almost see the chain of events, all of them culminating up to this. One long train wreak that extended back for four years, and hadn't even reached it's conclusion yet. And everywhere along the way, she began to see points in which it all could have been stopped, could have been avoided.

Hindsight is perfect, after all.

She heard the door to the room opening then, and she glanced up. Mr. Gray, Valerie's father came into the room. She had never met the man before, and for awhile, they just stared at each other, neither knowing what to say.

"I'm so sorry." Sam finally said then, feeling herself trembling, her body quaking as tears rolled down her face. "I'm so sorry."

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Danny Fenton was alone.

He wanted to be that way.

He shuddered as he wrapped his arms around his body, gripping so tight that he knew the pressure would cause his arms to bruise. He wasn't cold, even though he was out in the snow. He found himself hidden away in the warehouse district, as far away from the park as he could.

He wanted to disappear.

All the earlier resolve he had gained was gone now. It had vanished into thin air the very moment Valerie's body had hit the ground. Oh god. He felt bile rise in his throat as he replayed the scene in his mind again, though nothing came out. Just thinking about the sound of her bones snapping as she impacted was enough to make him sick to the stomach.

His other self had done horrible things before, but this was the worst of them. He didn't know if Valerie was alive or dead at the moment, but he could only assume the worst.

At best, he had ruined a life.

At worst, he had taken one.

Either way, neither option was looking very good.

Even though he had always known Valerie was the Red Hunter, he couldn't really bring himself to hate her, not after his initial anger at her dissipated. She had too many good traits that he couldn't overlook when he thought about her. She was a hard worker and someone who pretty much always spoke her mind.

She had become a good friend of his, too. There was a point, before his other self had begun to emerge, that he had actually considered coming clean to her. Not just to her, really, but to everyone he cared about. To Sam, to Tucker, to Jazz, even to his parents. He seemed to realize just how much his ghost hunting was taking out of him, and he knew that he shouldn't try and handle it alone any longer.

It was then that the first signs that there was something wrong with him began, and he put all such thoughts on hold.

That was a mistake.

He shuddered again as he heard his other self's chuckle in the back of his mind, as if he was terribly amused at his suffering. That was probably the worst part out of all of this, this whole messed up scenario.

Because Danny was the only one that knew.

The only one who realized that he hadn't taken control back from Black.

He had _given _it to him. Given it to him so he could watch him suffer, watch him break down under the weight of what he had made him do. And although Danny wanted to be strong, although he didn't want to do exactly what Black wanted...

The weight of it all was too heavy for him to do anything else.

He knew, as he sat there, tucked away on the roof of an otherwise empty building, that everything had gone wrong. He could feel his other self in his mind, lurking there, just waiting for the right moment to take his body away from him again. He hadn't known how well Black could pretend to be him before, and the thought that he could take him over without anyone else knowing was absolutely terrifying.

At any moment, he knew that his other self would take the reigns back, no matter how hard he tried to resist. And he knew that when he did, he might be the only one to know that.

It was the worst possible scenario.

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AN: SEE HOW DEPRESSING THAT WAS. Gawd. And you know, it's probably only going to get worse. Wow this really is my most depressing fan fiction.


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